Kevin Huerter Shared That NBA Players Know Refs Call Kings Games Differently, Validating What Their Fans Have Known For Decades
Eric Espada. Getty Images.Remember this play from the other night?
The one where literally every single person with eyes and a working brain could tell that Klay Thompson fouled Kevin Huerter? Well I shouldn't say that. The officials working that game didn't seem to think so. Unfortunately for them, the very next day the NBA came out and admitted that it was in fact a foul in their L2M report.
Yeah, no shit.
For Kings fans, it was more of the same. A few days earlier they were boned with a Tyler Herro game winning 3PM after a clear travel which wasn't called, and the league again admitted that was wrong. Considering their fans are definitely still feeling the 2002 WCF against the Lakers bullshit, you can understand why they care about this.
That's why when I saw this clip of Huerter on a Sacramento radio show talking about this very subject, I found his answer to be pretty damn interesting
Uhhhhh, call me crazy but this seems like kind of a big deal. If players are talking about how shit is different once you're a King, it's probably not a lie. I can't imagine that's something Adam Silver wants with his product, but at the same time he clearly doesn't give enough of a shit to do anything about it.
After listening to Huerter I was curious if the early season data backed a claim like this up. The same sizes are small still since we're only through 10 games for the most part, but here's what I found.
- The Kings rank 8th in the NBA in total FTA
- Their opponents average 22.5 fouls a game which is good for 6th most in the NBA.
- The Kings get called for a fuck ton of fouls (5th most)
- The Kings rank 5th in total "clutch time" FTA but also have the 6th most "clutch time" fouls
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What this obviously doesn't account for is plays that end up as no calls and things of that nature, and I'm sort of inclined to believe the player when it comes to this stuff. It's not like they just make that shit up out of thin air, and coming off what happened against MIA and then GS, does it really surprise anyone?
I will say this though. As someone who currently roots for a team that 1000000% has a complaining to the ref problem, the one thing I do know is that going public and talking like this is NOT going to help. If anything, it makes it worse. NBA refs are gigantic babies that hate being shown up, even when they are horrifically terrible and make game changing mistakes. They don't have to own up to it, there's no press conference where they have to answer to it, and there's no punishment for the league for it. So when they see guys openly question their integrity or whatever, they almost always take it personally and retaliate in some way. If Huerter thinks things may have been bad through 10 games, wait til he sees what happens now.
It's hard enough for the Kings to find a way to end their playoff drought that is inching closer and closer to a 20 year gap. Having to play 8 on 5 as well seems a little unfair.