When it comes to being a referee, you’re having a great night when no one is talking about you. By that logic, having the biggest star in the NBA talking about the officials would cause someone to believe it’s for something bad.
That wound up not being the case as LeBron James had something nice to say about the referee crew from Thursday night’s Brooklyn Nets–Philadelphia 76ers game. In particular, LeBron mentioned about how he loved that the officials let Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid trash talk without being whistled for a technical foul.
I love that the refs let KD and JE talk that talk to each other and didn’t TECH them up! That’s DOPE!! Understanding the assignment
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 11, 2022
For a heated game such as Nets-Sixers, the referees could be put in a difficult spot. For a game such as this, nobody should be surprised that opposing players are going to trade some smack talk. The issue is that it only takes one comment for things to get out of hand and there’s a bench clearing brawl that doesn’t make anybody look good. And then we’re complaining about the refs not doing something before that.
That didn’t happen in this case so things were fine. The referees kept things in check but let the players do their own thing and everything worked out for the best.
