The NBA might have a serious problem on its hands. Yet another superstar has voiced his frustrations regarding the missed calls by NBA officials during games. This time, it's New York Knicks' Kristaps Porzingis.
According to Newsday, Porzingis expressed that he was "super mad" about the lack of shooting foul calls he gets throughout the course of games. The Latvian big man would expand on his frustrations with the lack of touch fouls being called when he puts up shots.
"It makes me super mad that those little touches on the elbow and arm, I know they’re small, but it affects my shot so much,” Porzingis says. “I’m confused. I’m thinking about should I change my game because I shoot those shots so many times over guys. It just makes me mad that I’m not able to get those calls. I have to play through that. Maybe I’ll get them as we go forward."
Porzingis even says that he discusses his concerns with the referees prior to the start of games, but apparently that has not had an impact. "They know what’s going on," he tells Newsday. "They know those are the type of things they have to look at. Maybe it’s too hard to see. Maybe I’m too high up, I’m too long, I don’t know.”
Perhaps Porzingis was just frustrated with his play following a Thursday night 119-107 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in which he only scored 18 points, a dip from his average of 24.3 for the season. Still, he is not the only player to bring light to this current epidemic in the NBA.
On Christmas Day, the end of the Cavs-Warriors game was riddled with questionable no-calls that led to LeBron James and Kevin Durant speaking out. Even the NBA knew they got it wrong, announcing that the referees had missed pivotal foul calls on LeBron James in its "Last Two Minute Report," a release that Draymond Green would call "pointless" in the days following the game.
James Harden also recently ripped the referees following late game foul calls on him in the December 28 contest between the Rockets and Celtics that led to the Celtics gaining an opportunity to hit a game winner as time expired.
Whatever the reason for all of the recent inconsistency is, the NBA needs to try and fix this before it gets completely out of hand. Missed calls have always been somewhat of an expectation in the NBA, but with many top tier players publicly calling out the bad officiating a solution seems necessary. All of the guys I just mentioned are likely going to be playing in the All Star Game in Los Angeles this February. Hopefully, the league will have this under control by then.
