Cuban: NBA’s ref problem ‘going on for 20 years’
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban lashed out anew at the overall quality of NBA officiating in a series of tweets Saturday night after Dallas lost 111-107 to the Atlanta Hawks.
Cuban’s rant began with a tweet after Atlanta’s John Collins converted on a follow shot, which was credited after a goaltending call was overturned. The basket sealed the game for the Hawks with 8.4 seconds remaining.
“So they call a goaltend,” Cuban’s tweet began. “They literally blew the whistle that it was a goaltend. There was a putback after the whistle. After review they said no goaltend but count the basket? WTF is that? That’s NBA officiating.”
In a follow-up tweet, Cuban said, “1 of the refs told us it was an inadvertent whistle, so it was not goaltending. Doesn’t matter that people stopped. They thought the whistle came after the putback. So the basket counted. So what where they reviewing if it wasn’t a goaltend?”
Crew chief Rodney Mott explained the call after the game.
“The ball was blocked and reviewed,” Mott told a pool reporter. “The ball hit the rim, so it was deemed an inadvertent whistle because it was ruled a good block. By rule, it’s an inadvertent whistle. It’s Rule 2. Because he (Collins) was in his shooting motion when my whistle blew, it’s deemed a continuation, so therefore, the basket counts.”
Cuban has been fined more than $2 million by the league over the years for his public criticism of officiating.
“Refs have bad games,” he tweeted. “Crews have bad games. But this isn’t a single game issue. This is the same s— that has been going on for 20 years. Hire former refs who think they know how to hire, train and manage. Realize 2 years later they can’t. Repeat.”