It Turns Out Fred VanVleet May Have Been Onto Something After The NBA Decided To Demote Referee Ben Taylor
Cole Burston. Getty Images.It's only been 2 weeks since Fred VanVleet went on the mic and decided to say what the entire world, and pretty much every NBA player is thinking when it comes to this year's officiating problem in what is honestly an instant classic rant
If it came out that you somewhat agreed with FVV's comments, we saw officials (mainly Ben Taylor) make it a point to do something about it
Meanwhile, nothing FVV said was wrong. How do we know this? Well, Adam Silver finally woke up from his coma and did something about it!
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Live look at Fred VanVleet…
if I were Fred, I would call up the league office and ask when they plan on refunding that $30,000 fine he got all because he told the truth. They can call it a "coincidence" all they want, but who is that fooling? The NBA acknowledged that Fred was right and they thankfully did something about it. If there was no issue, why do anything at all? Players shouldn't have to pay $30K just to get Adam Silver to do something about his officiating problem, but hey at least this is progress right?
Welllllllll maybe not. May I present to you what happened in last night's LAC/OKC game
Ah yes, the "clap" technical foul. I know this one well considering it happens to Jayson Tatum twice a month it seems. Here we are yet again with a ref missing a call, a player simply saying "foul!" and clapping, only for that ref to get in their feelings and give a tech, then double downing on being emotional and giving two more techs to a different player, forcing his ejection. Why was this a big deal?
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Uhhhhhhh….that seems pretty important. One could make the case that an official being caught up in his feelings directly impacted the result of a game. Now maybe you're saying who cares about a LAC/OKC game? The answer is both of these teams very much care. It was arguably one of the bigger games of the season for both sides given where things stand
and the fact that OKC now owns the tie breaker over both DAL and LAC. We're at the point of the season where ALL of these games have big time implications, and yet we're still seeing officials make things about themselves. For the Clippers, this one game could be what ultimately has them in the Play In tournament, that's how massive the stakes are right now.
So my question is, will Adam Silver do anything about this? How about Scott Foster doing Scott Foster shit?
Shit like this is going to impact a playoff game and we are going to have big time problems on our hands. Maybe there will be direction from the league office to cut the shit once they start, but I doubt it. My guess is something will happen, a player will get fined, and Adam Silver will still pretend like there isn't an issue in his league when it comes to the officials.
I need to hear FVV's reaction to this news though. I bet you're going to be able to see his smile from outer space.