Joey here, a Celtics fan. In case you didn’t hear: LeBron James got fouled at the end of Saturday night’s game between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers at TD Garden. Now, look, was it a foul? Yes. Jayson Tatum clearly got LeBron’s arm as he went up for the game-winning layup, but was it really that big of a deal? Despite how many times he’s broken my heart, it’s hard not to respect LeBron as a player (even though I’d still take Larry Bird over him). That said, the way he reacted was a bit much if you ask me. Call me old-fashioned, but if I was LeBron, I would’ve acted like it was no big deal, returned to the huddle, and told my teammates to overcome the adversity and win the game against our archrivals. But hey, my 6-foot-1-inch, 140-pound self isn’t him – so maybe I’m speaking out of ignorance. But, what really got me was a tweet that came from the official NBA referees account, which read the play will cause “sleepless nights” for the league. Will it really? Not the flops, or superteams? I guess what I’m trying to say is – it was a missed call on a player who’s gotten many throughout his career, let’s get over it, and I disagree with the reaction from the league and mainstream media. Let’s play ball. And, by the way, this Celtics fan doesn’t think McHale’s foul on Rambis was that bad either.
Charlie here, a Lakers fan. The foul on LeBron James at the close of Saturday night was an atrocity. The Lakers, one of the league’s most storied franchises, are battling for their playoff (or play-in, if we’re being more realistic) lives. Now sitting at 23-28, the Lakers are just three games behind the Clippers, their crosstown rivals and the fourth seed in the western conference, in the loss column. It is impossible to argue that the foul did not sway the outcome of the game. LeBron, a career 74 percent free throw shooter, almost certainly would have made one of two free throws to give the Lakers a lead over their biggest rival, and crucially, a victory. At this point in the season, every game counts for a team like the Lakers, on the fringe of playoff contention and not in control of their own draft pick. For the referees to miss such a blatant foul at the most critical point of the game is a huge problem and can’t happen. It’s bad for the Lakers, it’s bad for the refs, and it’s bad for the league. The Lakers, as much as it pains me to admit, are not nearly as good as the Celtics, and a victory would have been a huge boon for a sputtering team. It’s absurd that calls like this are missed, and that there is no mechanism to review them. The cherry on top here is that it’s not as though Saturday night’s game was an isolated incident. A number of key calls have been missed by referees in recent Lakers games, as the league itself has admitted. Games against the Kings, the 76ers, and the Mavericks, have all also been soiled by missed calls. For the sake of the Lakers — and the league — this can’t go on.
