Rockets head coach Ime Udoka was unhappy with the officiating in his team’s 120-111 loss in Sacramento on Tuesday night, earning an ejection – along with center Alperen Sengun – when he came onto the court and confronted referee John Goble with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter (Twitter video links).
As Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) writes, even after speaking his mind to Goble on the court, Udoka had plenty to say during his post-game media session about how the game was officiated.
“Missed calls, blatant missed calls right in front of you,” Udoka said when asked why he was upset. “You’re calling ticky-tack moving screens and little s–t like that and then you don’t want to call the obvious ones right in front of you. That was it. Alpi got fouled a few times on that drive, on the layup and they don’t want to call it. Get some f—ing glasses or open your eyes.”
Asked if his outburst was about making sure his players know he has their backs and that he’s willing to stand up for them, Udoka admitted that wasn’t what was going through his mind.
“It wasn’t even about that, honestly,” he said. “Alpi got one (technical foul.) But take your sensitivity and emotions out of it and call the game the right way. It’s obvious, right in front of you. John Goble or whoever it was sees it and doesn’t call it. I’m gonna let him know about it. … They were missing calls all night, calling moving screens and every little touch call. Call the obvious one.”
While Udoka will almost certainly be fined by the NBA for his in-game actions and/or post-game comments, he isn’t the only Rocket who may face discipline from the league. According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, as Houston forward Tari Eason was leaving the court at the end of the game, he was heckled by a Sacramento fan and responded by throwing his towel and yelling obscenities at the fan.
As Amick details, Eason tried to enter the stands to confront the fan, but was held back by security officials. He eventually relented and headed to the visitors’ locker room.
The Rockets, who had won three games in a row and 10 of their last 12 entering Tuesday’s game, now have a 15-7 record and hold the No. 2 seed in the West, a game-and-a-half behind the top-seeded Thunder.
Will all the coaches stand up and demand a meeting with the refs leader??? The superstars should also but so many are scared.
Was truly a horribly officiated game. Like ime said, they loved calling the soft ticky tack calls, but had blatant ones uncalled all night.
These people need to quit complaining. I know the games are rigged, you know the games are rigged, and those involved know the games are rigged.
I could barely watch the Warrior game last night while the crap foul calls and non calls. The discrepancy wasn’t as bad as some other games but still 35 – 21 fouls? Just not right but it’s how it is. Nothing you can do about it.
Then the time out Denver called at the end of the game wasn’t honored because they were out of timeouts? Should have been a technical foul but of course.., no call.
I often forget this is an entertainment business and the goal is to make money. It’s not always going to appear fairly officiated to a biased fan of one team like me.
People who “know the games are rigged” and keep watching are very odd to me.
Seriously. I cannot take anyone seriously when they say that.
The reality is that referees in all sports are simply given too much of a leash to put their own bias into the game. MLB umpires, for example, can call whatever they want as a strike or throw anyone out of the game for any reason and face zero punishment for it. It’s not really any different in other leagues.
You make a good point. the problem is the Refs can call what they want instead of calling the same way by every Ref. Like why does one player get a T called but another does the same thing and no call. Coaches too. Why can one player lower the shoulder and bulldozer over a player but a non star does it and its a offensive foul?
If they’re given too much of a leash and can make their own decisions without getting fired or fined or replaced or whatever, then that’s a problem.
There’s no standard. There’s no accountability. See the same faces all the time. The same names. And just like you say it’s an all sports.
You can’t take anyone seriously who says sports are rigged? Okay suit yourself. You’re entitled to your opinion even when it’s wrong lol.
Eon, if you can’t see that the stars get the calls then I don’t know what to tell you.
There’s a difference between “big names get better calls” and “every game is rigged”, lol. One is blatantly obvious fact that has been true in every facet of life since time immemorial. The other is taking one’s personal dissatisfaction with outcomes and frustrations about them too far. Unbalanced, yes. Rigged, no.
Eon, Why would you put in quotes “every game is rigged?” Who wrote that?
The games are rigged is what I wrote. You need to misquote people in order to make your point effective?
There’s no difference between, stars get the calls and, the games are rigged.
If I know beforehand the stars are going to get the calls thru my whistle, then that’s the definition of the game being rigged.
But it sounds like you don’t like to be wrong. I’ll be wrong here. As I often say, I’ll post stuff to start conversations.
If you don’t think the games are rigged and the outcomes are helped along by the refs, that’s totally fine. I say this often too. Your opinion is better than mine because Who Am I. I don’t know much and I prove it here almost every day.
Seems like everything I write is odd to you. But thanks for reading and commenting anyway. I appreciate it.
Not hardly. If I agree with everything you say, I don’t comment at all, lol. That’s most of your comments. I say nothing in that situation because I don’t have much to add.
Eon, Clay wrote that what I write “is odd to him.” I should have defined my Audience by starting the comment with “clay.” I usually try to but often forget.
Clay, I watch the games because I love basketball. I watch the games because my team is very often on the receiving end of these crap calls and so they win often enough to keep me from whining about the refs.
Time for the 2 minute report so the Refs can cover up their mistakes. They will claim its marginal contact so no foul but in another report its a foul on contact.
The vast majority of contributors here would maintain that the Warriors are given the benefit of referees calls over most of their opponents, and significantly so. When a contributor states that his or her team was the beneficiary of calls and not the victim, now we have something noteworthy. Otherwise it’s just “boo hoo hoo, the refs are out to get us”, and not worth the wasted pixels.
You don’t watch very much NBA to say that because the warriors are always one of the lowest FTA teams every year. Curry doesn’t get the all star calls other all stars get. Watch SGA how he can use the free arm to push away defenders.
Oh boy! SGA and his pushoffs, refs always swallow their whistles on that.
You’re right! I attended my first NBA game in 1956 and am still attending 20-30 games live, every year, around 1500 games now with time out for service as a medic in the army. Jump shooting teams take fewer foul shots. The 57-58 Royals were jump shooters. Well, they had a few set shots guys too.
Depends on how you define rigging. Do I believe superstar players get more calls? Yes, but that’s the same in every environment; the stars are treated better. Do I think the refs may try to massage big deficits to prevent a blowout? Possible. It certainly would be in the leagues best interest for games to be closer and wouldn’t be too difficult to pull off. Do I think refs can be
biased? In rare instances sure. They are human and aren’t going to be emotional responsible 100% of the time. Beyond that you’re asking for an impossible number of things to be true for an actual large-scale conspiracy to exist.
I always circle back to the fact that none of the complainers—coaches or players—are hammering this issue on a consistent basis. That’s because it’s a hit or miss issue that hurts only in the moment rather than some sort of conspiracy. If things were so dire they would act and no one has thus far.
But one thing we do know for certain is humans are conditioned to be biased and selectively serving. That’s how you get the conspiracy stuff to take hold. Occam’s razor almost always wins. Is it really that hard to believe a few human beings just aren’t very good at tracking the hyper fast movements of multiple body parts made by 10 different players?
Shea.., great points.
Here’s another thing to consider in all of this discussion. Why do refs swallow their whistle at the end of the quarters?
When’s the last time a foul was called at the end of one of the quarters or half? It’s funny how they just want it over with and move on to the next stanza.
I can’t be the only one that notices that. Well at least they’re consistent with it LOL
It’s about a agenda. When will people figure it out
One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the rickyard when—whack!—an acorn hit her upon the head. “Goodness gracious me!” said Henny-penny, “the sky’s a-going to fall; I must go and tell the King.”
If there is a conspiracy, an agenda to _______ (fill in the blank) why is it that no one has ever come forward after they are disengaged from a particular sport and spilled the beans, named names, etcetera ?
THE SKY IS FALLING!!! Phooey!
Meadowlark, Go to YouTube and look up Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner talk about the games being rigged.
You’ll see them spill the beans and they also explain why you haven’t seen a video or someone come forward spilling the beans. It’s very interesting.
Not sure why people can claim, no one has ever, when it’s impossible for anyone to know all the information EVER? It’d be a better conversation if someone might say “I’ve never seen.”
The Iguodala segment is a good one, but conspiracy stuff is hard to keep secret when more than 8-10 people are involved. Evan Turner is an entertaining interview, but he’s mostly about Evan Turner and doing some woofing.
Rockets 23 fouls, Kings 20 fouls and Rockets 21 FT and Kings 20 FT. Not that agregious in my book. I like the Rockets and their aggressive chip on their shoulder play, but not much of a fan of their after-the-whistle aggresiveness. Sabonis was battered all night. Just play the game and stop the whining.
Sabonis pushes in the back and gets away with the calls. Watch how AD does the same.
Point taken…and with both players. Sabonis is like a lumberjack out there. Not that athletic and is built to take a beating. Less so with AD, who may be having his best year.
I always find these sorts of complaints so silly because they’re misguided, unless the hope is to curry favor for the next game’s officiating. If coaches think officiating is broken, then how about making some public suggestions to fix it? The truth is they only care in the moment because it temporarily impacts their team, then afterwards all interest is lost. Well…