Few teams have been as impacted by the NBA’s last two minute reports this season than the Nuggets. Early on, the report, which comes out the day after the previous nightap games, highlighted a missed call in a Nuggets’ loss at Memphis that would most certainly have changed the outcome of that game.
Lately, the NBA’s attempt at added transparency through the reports has come under increased criticism as star players Kevin Durant of Golden State and Cleveland’s LeBron James have labeled them as, among other things, being unfair to the referees.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone agreed with the players.
“On one hand, you have to respect the transparency, you really do,” Malone said. “After Christmas Day, all people talked about for two days was that (Cleveland-Golden State) game. Well, itap happened to us a bunch this year. The game in Memphis, the last two minute report admits that a mistake was made on the review, and it should have been our ball. We win that game.”
The Nuggets protested the result of that game, a 108-107 loss on Nov. 8, to no avail. The NBA denied the protest. Late last week, the NBA admitted it got a foul call on Nikola Jokic incorrect in the last two minutes of the Nuggets’ loss to the Hawks.
“Even on the Nikola Jokic (foul against) Atlanta. They say he shouldn’t have fouled out,” Malone said. “Well, itap not just the foul. Then I get a silly tech out of that; thatap three points with 40 seconds to go. So, you love the transparency, but I don’t know, what good does it do? We admit that it should have been your ball. Okay, so we win the game then, right? No. I know LeBron and Kevin Durant have been very vocal about it, all I’ll say is the league is really trying to be transparent, show its fans how open we are, but at the same time I’m not sure what good itap doing.”
Malone did acknowledge the challenge of officiating.
“At the end of the day … the referees have the hardest job,” Malone said. “Itap a thankless job for them, and now on top of that their errors are openly aired for everybody to see. Thatap not easy to handle I’m sure, if I was a referee.
Footnote. The Nuggets’ Jan. 5 home game against San Antonio has been changed to a 7 p.m. local start and will no longer be televised by TNT. The game was to start at 8:30 p.m.
