Stan Van Gundy was accepting of the $35,000 fine that was given to him on Friday, but questioning its rationale and the interpretation of its own rules that prohibit criticism of officials.

"What I said was accurate, reasoned and positive,'' he said Saturday after practice. "I don't regret anything I said.''

Van Gundy also didn't like the wording of the league's announcement, which stated that he was fined "for publically criticizing officials.' He said he was speaking in general terms, and not being critical of any individual officials.

"It said I was fined `for publicly criticizing officials,' and that's not what I did at all," he said. "I didn't do that. We haven't done it."

These were his original remarks:

"Here's the thing about replacement refs: there's no problem with them. These are guys the NBA in large part has identified. They're good, young officials on the way up, and one day they'll be ready. It would be like us having to play now with an entire D-League roster. A lot of those guys will be ready to play in three or four years. If you took one of those guys (replacements) and put him on an NBA crew every night, they'd probably be OK. But they are all out there together. It would be like me taking a D-league team and saying 'All right, let's go play the Hornets.' It's not going to work too good."