LeBron has never been afraid to voice his displeasure.
LeBron James is one the leading voices in the NBA today. When he talks, people tend to listen and for good reason. He is currently in his 17th season in the league so he knows how things operate on a nightly basis. Last night, his Los Angeles Lakers were taking on the New Orleans Pelicans and the issue in his crosshairs was the ficiating. Near the end the game, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was called for a foul on Brandon Ingram which LeBron thought was unjustified. Lakers head coach Frank Vogel issued a coach’s challenge but the call was immediately upheld, much to the dismay James.
James reacted by going up to ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy where he began ripping into the ficials and how they never want to be wrong. The whole thing was caught on camera and you can hear James clearly the whole time.
“That’s a bad call,” LeBron said. “When the ref makes that call, he don’t never want to be wrong. They’re never going to overturn it. Ever. Ever.”
James makes a valid point as the challenges are always looked at by the reds who made the call in the first place. There isn’t much incentive to overturn the call and if a ref does, in fact, do such a thing, they are conceding they were wrong all along. When you’re a player like LeBron, these things are going to annoy you, so it shouldn’t be a surprise he reacted this way.