Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic's all-time rant on referees after losing to the Los Angeles Lakers just cost him a ton of dough -- the league announced it has fined him $25k for his comments.
As we previously reported, the first-year coach went scorched earth on officials over the free throw disparity in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's contest ... calling it "completely BS" the Lakers got 23 attempts, while his squad only got two in the 132-131 loss.
Considering it's against NBA rules to criticize officials in public, a financial punishment was pretty much a sure thing as soon as the comments came out of Rajakovic's mouth.
The punishment was made official on Thursday ... with Joe Dumars announcing the decision.
Many will say the rant was worth the $25k ... as it quickly went viral on social media, with some talking heads giving DR props for sticking up for his players.
LeBron James didn't agree with Rajakovic, though ... as he said after the game he felt the Raptors simply fouled more, which resulted in the Lakers getting to the charity stripe.