In a series of tweets, Mark Cuban called out NBA refs for over “20 years” of bad officiating after the Mavericks’ loss to the Hawks on Saturday night.
The Dallas Mavericks lost 111-107 to the Atlanta Hawks, Saturday night, prompting a series of tweets from Mark Cuban directed at NBA officials.
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As ESPN reports, Cuban’s remarks were aimed at an overturned goaltending call on a shot from Atlanta’s John Collins, which sealed the game.
“So they call a goaltend,” Cuban 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.
“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 to reporters: “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.”
“Refs have bad games,” Cuban continued. “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.”
Cuban has been fined over $2 million for his comments on officiating since purchasing the Mavericks.
