Chris Paul and the Clippers did not play well against the Cavaliers in Cleveland last night. They only ended up losing 105-94, but in actuality, the final score wasn't indicative of how the game went. The Cavs led the Clips by more than 30 points heading into the fourth quarter, and the only reason the final score ended up looking somewhat respectable was because Cleveland rested its starters during the game's final frame, which allowed Los Angeles to cut into their gigantic lead.
After the contest, none of the guys on the Clippers wanted to talk about the blowout loss, though. Instead, most of them were focused on the fact that the game's referees called five technical fouls on the Clippers during the contest. Matt Barnes picked up two of them and was ejected (he leads the league with 11 technicals this season), DeAndre Jordan and Doc Rivers picked up one each as well, and Chris Paul was called for one in the third quarter after exchanging words with female referee Lauren Holtkamp on an inbounds play. You can see that play within this clip from SportsCenter last night:
That technical foul ended up causing quite a bit of controversy. While speaking with reporters, CP3—who was clearly frustrated with the way things went for the Clippers last night—referred to the technical foul as "ridiculous." Then, he went on to question why Holtkamp made the call and said that the first-year NBA referee might not be ready for officiating NBA games just yet.
"I think we have to show better composure," he said, "but at the same time, some of [the technical fouls] were ridiculous. The tech that I get right there was ridiculous. I don't care what nobody says, I don't care what she says; that's terrible. There's no way that can be a tech. We try to get the ball out fast every time down the court, and when we did that, she said, 'Uh-uh.' I said, 'Why, uh-uh?' And she gave me a tech. That's ridiculous. If that's the case, this might not be for her."
"This might not be for her." Those six words didn't sit well with a lot of people. Because while CP3 and his teammates were quick to say that Holtkamp's gender had nothing to do with their criticism of her, there were some people out there who didn't see it that way. They took to Twitter and criticized CP3 for his comments and even went as far as to say that they were sexist:
Of course, not everyone saw it that way. There were also quite a few people who didn't have a problem with CP3 saying, "This might not be for her," and didn't think his post-game comments were sexist at all:
It was a hot topic on Inside the NBA last night:
And it'll likely continue to be a hot topic today. So far, the NBA hasn't chimed in. But we'd expect them to say something soon with regards to Paul's comments about Holtkamp.
6.
If you're not familiar with Holtkamp—as we mentioned, this is only her first year refereeing at the NBA level—she spent six seasons officiating games in the NBA Development League before joining the NBA full-time this season. She worked both the 2013 and 2014 D-League Finals and has also officiated games for the WNBA, NCAA, and FIBA.
Do you think that CP3's comments about her crossed the line?
[via ESPN Los Angeles]
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