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Just before halftime of last night’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Draymond Green and Jaylen Brown had a little dust-up that had some pushing and shoving (and shorts grabbing) before teammates were able to separate them and calm things down a bit.
Once things got settled, the refs went to review the play to see what type of punishments should be handed out. To just about anyone watching it seemed like a perfect spot for a double technical. There was one very big issue with that, though – Green already had a technical called on him earlier in the game so this could have been a game-changing moment if he got a second and was sent to the locker room for the rest of the night.
While the ref’s were rewatching the play on the monitor, ESPN had their rules expert, former NBA ref Steve Javie, on the broadcast to break down what happened. And that’s when he said something pretty damning about NBA refs and how they work a game.
Check out his take on what he’d be thinking about as a ref in that situation:
“You have to consider one player definitely has a (previous) technical foul – is this enough to call a double T and eject the one player? Personally I would say nothing and I would let it just defuse as that – that’s just my opinion.”
That’s a wild mindset for a ref. But then he was asked by Mark Jackson – if he was making the call would he be thinking about the fact that Green had one technical already and would that play into his ruling?
“Absolutely. I think that’s part of good officiating – is the fact that you have to know who has the technical fouls and in this situation one of the players does. Is this enough to warrant an ejection is what you have to think about.”
You can watch the video of that discussion right here:
Steve Javie says consideration is taken if a player already has a tech and if the action is enough for an ejection not just a tech foul. Why Draymond did not get tossed.
— Ted Buddwell 🏀🏈 (@TedBuddy8) June 6, 2022
That. Is A lot.
And I don’t think any of it can or should be considered “good officiating.”
NBA refs shouldn’t be thinking that way, right? If one player already has a technical foul then the normal rules shouldn’t really apply to that player for the rest of the game? If that’s the way refs operate, and I obviously can’t say for sure that they do, then it seems like fans would be right for questioning the integrity for which refs call big games.
In a league that already feels like the refs have way too big of an impact on games, this thought process shared by Javie is a very bad one and shouldn’t be taken lightly by the NBA. That it was just so openly shared on the broadcast of a NBA Finals game is just insane.
It’s also pretty gross.
Quick hits: Curry and Poole become a meme… Cubs fans build epic beer cup snake… Weird MLB rule prevents position player from pitching… And more.
– Steph Curry and Jordan Poole looking at each other after Poole’s buzzer-beater in Game 2 quickly became a funny meme.
– Cubs fans built an epic double-decker beer cup snake last night in Chicago and it was pretty awesome.
– A very weird MLB rule stopped Dodgers manager Dave Roberts from bringing in a position player to pitch against the Mets.
– These videos of Brooks Koepka and Jena Sims dancing to Ludacris at their wedding over the weekend are pretty great.
