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The Brooklyn Nets are a team without star power after trading away Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. It's a reality that has handicapped Brooklyn offensively in five games since the pair of franchise-altering moves. But Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie pointed to unfavorable treatment from referees as a main factor in those struggles Sunday following a heartbreaking loss in Atlanta. The NBA is a star's league more than ever before, something Dinwiddie said plays a role in how the game is officiated, especially down the stretch.
With 9:15 left in the fourth quarter in Atlanta, Dinwiddie unleashed a ferocious dunk over Onyeka Okongwu. The play should have been a momentum-shifter with Brooklyn mounting a comeback. Instead, Dinwiddie picked up a technical foul for yelling “And-one!” at an official.
The 30-year-old used the play postgame as an example of the preferential treatment stars receive in today's NBA.
“I have a lot of last-second shots or game-winners, but it’s the lead-up that’s the tough part without superstars. That’s what people miss,” Spencer Dinwiddie said via Brian Lewis. “If KD says and-one, they’re not giving him a tech. All these things change the flow of the game. [Stars] can cuss them out, they can do whatever, and they’ll let all that s–t slide.”
There's one superstar with close ties to the Nets who would strongly disagree: Kevin Durant. The former MVP led the league with 11 technical fouls in the first half of the season with Brooklyn. Durant even took to Twitter early this year to voice his opinion on referees' quick triggers on techs:
I wanna say 7 of my 10 techs have been from me talking to loud to the refs. Not even using foul language..I’d scream “yo that’s a foul” and boom… https://t.co/t8ieM6Bd1g
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) December 22, 2022
But the technical foul is simply a microcosm of a larger issue in Dinwiddie's mind. The veteran referenced two fouls called on the floor in the fourth quarter Sunday where he felt he should have been awarded free throws.
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Dinwiddie was frustrated by the calls with the Nets attempting to climb out of a hole. Trae Young, who has developed a reputation as one of the league's top foul-baiters, attempted a game-high nine free throws in the Hawks win. Just two of those came in the fourth quarter, but as he did with Durant, Dinwiddie pointed to Young as a beneficiary of his star status.
“That’s where you miss the superstars, especially in the fourth quarter,” he said. “Every time me and Trae Young did the same move, he gets free throws. On my end, they’re like ‘Are you really shooting it?’ Well, what else was I doing? They’re like ‘I don’t know. It’s bang-bang.’ Remember that happened to me four times; that’s eight free throws. The game isn’t close. We lose by two; I had eight free throws. Trae Young got it every time.”
While stars are known to receive preferential treatment from referees at times, Spencer Dinwiddie has a habit of consistently complaining to officials dating back to his first stint with the Nets. That trend continued with the Dallas Mavericks and reached a boiling point in a Nov. 4 game this season. After calling Dinwiddie for a technical foul, the guard said referee Tony Brothers referred to him as a “b***h-a*s mother f****er” to one of his Mavericks teammates. The league suspended Brothers for one game after the incident.
Just five games into his second stint with Brooklyn, it's clear that Dinwiddie's complaints about the league's officials won't be slowing down anytime soon.
