The Finals are as competitive as it gets in the NBA, and things get pretty intense this late into the postseason. In Game 2 against the Heat on Sunday, Nuggets fans could hardly contain their anger with the refs for some missed calls down the stretch of their first home loss of the season.
In a game that the Heat won by 3 points, the refs missed a call on Jimmy Butler stepping out of bounds leading to a wide-open 3.
Did the refs cost the Nuggets the game on this? 🤔pic.twitter.com/Lb9A48hoEm
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 5, 2023
One fan in particular even went so far as to call out the officials after the game, revealing one of them to be a former teammate of Heat veteran Udonis Haslem.
John Goble, NBA Referee
BORN: November 25, 1978 (Miami, Fla.)
RESIDES: Miami, Fla.
HIGH SCHOOL: Miami Senior (Miami, Fla.)
Udonis Haslem was his teammate on the basketball team
COLLEGE: Florida International University '01#NBAFinals
— Erik (@spoder22) June 5, 2023
Fans taking issue with officiating is nothing new in the NBA, but the referees are under increased scrutiny right now amid the ongoing scandal with Eric Lewis.
“NBA insider Marc Stein reported that NBA officials have opened an investigation into NBA referee Eric Lewis after fans seemingly uncovered a burner account that might belong to him. “The burner account in question was consistently defending some of the questionable calls that Lewis made in games. While the account claimed that it was run by Eric’s brother Mark, the NBA is going to investigate it to see whether Lewis did anything wrong and had anything to do with the account.”
Lewis did not call the Finals for Game 2 and it’s unlikely he returns for this series at all. As for John Goble, he’s got 16 years of NBA experience under his belt so it’s safe to say that the league feels confident he can be trusted.
Should NBA Hold Their Refs More Accountable?
The NBA is no doubt one of the best-called leagues out there and the officials are right more often than they were wrong. But when the stakes are this high, in an age where integrity is always being called into question, it’s important for the league to set the record straight and send a message that this will not be tolerated.
Of course, fans are always going to have their issues with the referees, but the NBA really has to be careful that the people do not lose faith in the system and the referees that keep these games running.
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