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The league office on Sunday fined New Orleans Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry $15,000 for publicly criticizing referees after a recent game, per Shams Charania of The Vertical. The Pelicans lost to the Houston Rockets on Saturday in a game they desperately needed to stay in the Western Conference playoff race.
He had several complaints about the officiating in that game, much of which centered around the referees “guessing” on calls they made.
“And so then it comes down to a few plays in a game, you can’t guess on plays when you got teams playing for playoff spots,” Gentry said. “You can’t guess on a foul. When a guy’s got his hands on his chest, and he’s got his hands in, and you call a three-point shot [a foul], that’s not right. That’s not correct. That’s not the way you do it.”
Suggesting officials are guessing on plays is quite the accusation.
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The Pelicans head coach was also incensed that Anthony Davis did not get as many calls as Gentry felt he deserved. Many players of Davis' caliber get what is known as “superstar treatment” when it comes to officiating, and Gentry felt he did not get that on Saturday.
As has been written in this space before, a few calls down the stretch of a game were not the reason any one team lost. A loss is usually a microcosm of various events that led to a team being in a certain position at the end of a game.
To blame referees and accuse them so egregiously of guessing during important moments is probably not very fair. It's understandable that as a coach, Gentry will defend his players and eat a fine if he feels he has to.
But at the same time, he has been around long enough to understand that referees don't play or coach the games.
