NEW YORK, October 18, 2009 (AFP) - The New York Knicks defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv 106-91 Sunday, waiting out an odd delay in the third quarter when Maccabi coach Pini Gershon declined to leave the floor after he was ejected by officials.

The game between the National Basketball Association club and the Euroleague team from Israel was delayed for eight minutes in the third quarter, after Gershon received two technical fouls in quick succession.

The second came on a play that went against New York, whose Al Harrington was called for an offensive foul in front of the Maccabi bench and Gershon started souting at referee Ben Taylor, who issued a second technical that carries an automatic ejection.

When Gershon showed no signs of leaving, Rabbi Yitchak Dovid Grossman, founder of the orphanage Migdal Ohr which was the charitable beneficiary of the game, came onto the court to ask officials to let the coach stay.

Gershon left, however, after a discussion with the officials, his assistant coaches and NBA security personnel.

Maccabi's Yaniv Green said fans back home are used to Gershon's antics.

"He likes the crowd, the crowd likes him very much," Green said. "They're coming to the game to see him even more than they're coming to see us. He's quite a character, like you saw today."

Nate Robinson, who scored 19 points for the Knicks, had never seen anything like it.

"I've never experienced that before, but I mean there's a first time for everything I guess," Robinson said.

The game, like all of this year's NBA pre-season games, was officiated by replacement referees, who were called in from the WNBA and NBA Development League after the NBA locked out regular refs in a contract dispute.

Maccabi are to play the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday.