The Official NBA Refs Twitter Account Is Back, This Time They've Decided To Give A Giant Middle Finger To The Suns And Their Fans
Christian Petersen. Getty Images.I'm not going to sit here and tell you officiating NBA games is easy. With how fast the game is and how much more athletic the players are, it's a tough game to officiate. While that doesn't excuse the glaring issues the NBA has when it comes to their officiating problem, I understand that no human is ever going to be perfect.
Because we live in a world in 2023 where everything needs to be online, the NBA ref's Twitter account has decided they need to weigh in on stuff, and we're at the point now where every time we get a tweet from @OfficialNBARefs it seems to be more embarrassing than the last. I don't think we'll ever top this one
I still can't believe that is a real tweet from an official NBA account. I can't read that tweet and not laugh. Have some goddamn shame for me one time.
Well, you'll never believe this, but they're back a few months later. This time, the focus is on another face of the NBA player
Just 5 days ago, poor Torrey Craig risked his life in an attempt to guard Giannis. One would think a guy bullying into you to the point where it knocks your teeth out (like what happened to Craig) would be a foul, but of course it wasn't. The crazy thing is that wasn't even the worst play of the game.
After the Suns loss, Monty Williams went on a rant about it that sounded awfully familiar to what he said when these two teams faced off in the Finals
This is a play that went pretty viral on Twitter, so naturally the NBA's refs had to weigh in. No way they could sit back and let their names be slandered. So they fired up Twitter and sent this tweet
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I am once again asking them, just like with LeBron, have some shame here. To have a whole ass tweet and not even mention the lowering of the shoulder/arm pushoff let along the contact alone is exactly why tweets like this do more harm than good. Do these people think nobody has eyes? Anyone who watches the NBA knows that if any other player has a move like that, it's an offensive foul. Period. There's no discussion about legal guarding position. Notice how they didn't describe what that legal guarding position is in that tweet?
Basically, this tweet is a giant fuck you to the Suns and their fans when you really think about it. The issue here is whatever reasoning they are trying to use to explain this play is not used consistently from night to night or even possession to possession. We even have an example of this involving the same two players! Remember this play from the Finals?
That's essentially the exact same play! This is partly why Giannis plays this way. They aren't going to be consistent with what is and isn't a charge, so you may as well do it all the time and live with the results.
If they care so much about legal positioning, well then how was a play like this overturned?
On what planet is any of this consistent? I also noticed the official refs account doesn't have a tweet explaining that one. Why is that?
I know they think videos and tweets like this are them being "accountable" or showing "transparency", but it's actually having the opposite effect in my opinion. Of all the clips of iffy calls to use to try and justify something, I'm not sure that Giannis play is the right one. It's OK, you probably missed that call. Officiating Giannis is tough, but unless you're a Bucks fan I'm pretty sure everyone understands why plays like that should be offensive fouls, which is why Giannis gets called for them. The issue is picking and choosing when they are or aren't, and instead of simply admitting that sometimes you get it wrong, trying to spinzone it is just a weird look.