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LeBron James made headlines for his criticism of NBA refs on Monday afternoon. The Los Angeles superstar called out officials for their lack of awareness on what he believes to be obvious calls.
Most of those calls, in his eyes, have gone against the Lakers in crucial moments of action. He’s now added fuel to the fire of a league-wide conspiracy theory.
James posted a message to his Twitter account earlier this week to vent about his recent frustrations with officiating crews. Here’s what he had to say.
And all year they keep telling me to my face on the court, “I didn’t see it” or “It wasn’t a foul”. It’s not making sense to me seriously! Frustrating as hell man! Anyways keep going Squad!
LeBron’s criticism of the refs for missed calls is a bold statement in its own right, but James’s tweet was also linked to a fan’s claim of an NBA scandal with the intent of keeping Los Angeles down.
This must be MUCH BIGGER STORY than it is.
What NBA is basically doing, is 2 days in a row, altering their own definition of the rules, their own guidelines to tell the fans to “believe them” instead of our own eyes on Game Deciding Plays!
How is this not a Huge Scandal?
— Letting Go (@ProvideContext) January 16, 2023
The original post shows a play at the end of a close loss to the Sixers in which Russell Westbrook appears to be fouled by Joel Embiid. No foul was called, and the Lakers eventually fell, 113-112.
It was the second straight loss in which LA fans questioned a late call. In an overtime defeat against Dallas, they blamed refs for a no-call on a potential game-winning shot from Troy Brown.
The league reviewed both plays and sided with the officials in each case. Still, LeBron and this fan are implying that refs are purposely influencing the outcome of games.
“How is this not a huge scandal??”
Some supporters agree, with many linking the motive back to sports gambling profits. That’s not completely out of the realm of possibility considering we’ve seen it before with an NBA referee.
Still, social media might not be the wisest outlet for James’s venting. He probably doesn’t want to be directly tied to accusations that the NBA is intentionally compromising the integrity of the game. Players have been punished monetarily for much less.