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- NBA fans think refs overturned what appeared to be a correct call to appease LeBron James
- Officials called a kicked ball violation despite replays that showed James threw the rock off the foot of his own teammate
- Read more basketball news here
You don’t need to be a basketball scholar to know the biggest names in the NBA have historically been on the receiving end of some preferential treatment from the league’s referees, as star players frequently receive the benefit of the doubt on both ends of the court.
For the most part, this favoritism is manifested in fairly subtle ways. If a superstar is playing defense, they might not be called for a foul that would send them to the line every single time, and the threshold for receiving a technical while voicing one’s displeasure over a particular development tends to be a bit higher for the guys the NBA relies on to sell tickets and boost ratings.
LeBron James has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of biased officiating, and it’s hard to think of a single moment that highlights that reality better than what occurred when the Lakers faced off against the Bulls on Sunday.
During the second quarter, James attempted to connect with Carmelo Anthony by throwing a bounce pass that ultimately ended up out of bounds. While it appeared to be a fairly obvious turnover, LeBron stormed across the court to confront multiple refs over the call, which was inexplicably overturned after the officials ruled it had been kicked by Lonzo Ball.
The ball did make contact with a player’s foot, but because the player in question was Russell Westbrook, it shouldn’t have been a factor. However, because Ball was determined to be the guilty party, the Lakers not only retained possession but had a dwindling shot clock reset to 14 seconds.
As you can imagine, NBA fans were not shy about voicing their displeasure.
Bro Lebron just yelled at the refs and they changed a clear call
— Jose (@BullsFanJose) December 20, 2021
Aaron Rodgers Lebron James
🤝
Taking refs out to Gibsons before games in Chicago— Ross Pins (@chisportsross) December 20, 2021
Lebron just bullied the refs into changing an out of bounds call
— AFunkyDiabetic (@FunkyDiabetic1) December 20, 2021
https://twitter.com/julianbuchanann/status/1472855962000277509
Lebron just threw the ball out of bounds, threw a tantrum, then they called it a kick off Lonzo when it was nowhere near his foot. Man 🤣
— JW 🥴 (@joshwarre0000) December 20, 2021
I know the Lebron ref jokes are overdone but cmon dude 😂 they’re not even trying rn
— Ross Pins (@chisportsross) December 20, 2021
By now, it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.