When it comes to sports, officiating is always going to come under scrutiny in some way, shape, or form. They’re people too, they make mistakes. With that being said, sports leagues need to start holding their referees accountable for making / missing game changing penalties that directly impact the flow and outcome of games.
This especially needs to happen in the NBA, as bad officiating seems to happening more times than it should this season. It’s gotten to the point where players are starting to lose their minds at officials, as evident by Fred VanVleet of the Toronto Raptors. VanVleet received his 8th technical foul of the season in the game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Referee Ben Taylor reportedly was the one who gave him the foul midway through the third quarter.
Clippers pulled out a 108-100 victory over the Raptors, which only made VanVleet’s frustrations at the refs worse. The man did not hold back during his postgame media availability. He had no fear in his heart over being fined for what he felt needed to be said:
“I don’t mind, I’ll take a fine, I don’t really care,” VanVleet said. “I thought Ben Taylor was f***ing terrible tonight. I think that on most nights, you know out of the three [officials], there’s one or two that just f*** the game up. It’s been like that a couple of games in a row.”
We’ve been seeing instances like this happen all across the NBA, with the most notable of the bunch coming from the missed shooting foul from Jayson Tatum on LeBron James. VanVleet isn’t blaming all the refs, mind you. He said that he likes most of them. It’s Ben Taylor he has an issue with, and points out that most of the tech fouls he’s gotten this year have been given to him by said official.
“I think we’re losing a little bit of the fabric of what the NBA is and was,” VanVleet said. “It’s been disappointing this season. You could look up most of my techs this year have been with Ben Taylor officiating. At a certain point, as a player, you feel it’s personal.”
Something tells me this won’t be the last time an instance like this happens.
Fred VanVleet went OFF on referee Ben Taylor and NBA reffing in general in his post-game after the Raptors loss. Haven't heard anything like this. pic.twitter.com/VcMkGTh0k3
— Faizal Khamisa (@SNFaizalKhamisa) March 9, 2023
