LeBron James has made it clear that he’s not happy with the way that referees have officiated games with him this season, in particular, the crucial missed foul calls in the Cleveland Cavaliers versus Golden State Warriors game on Christmas day.
“If he says ‘I may have missed that one’ or ‘maybe I wasn’t in the right position.’ But when you see the ref right there on the baseline looking at the whole play, and you go up to him and he says it’s no call, multiple times in the crunch time, that’s the frustrating part. And for me, it’s even more frustrating because I know how I’m officiated at times.”
According to Rob Goldberg, the NBA concluded Kevin Durant did foul James three different times in the final 1:12 of the fourth quarter. The report said Durant fouled James twice on one drive to the basket with about 30 seconds left before James lost the ball out of bounds. After a replay review, the Warriors were awarded possession.
The Cavaliers went on to lose the game 99-92 after they didn’t score for the rest of the game, and none of the foul calls were given. Had the fouls been awarded and if a pair of free throws were made, it would have cut the Warriors’ lead down to one.
James is averaging 28.1 points per game this season—his highest PPG since the 2009-10 season despite the issues he continues to face with the NBA officials.
Flip the page to hear what LeBron James had to say.