On Sunday evening, the Philadelphia 76ers took a frustrating road loss to the Atlanta Hawks despite a big game from Paul George. With both teams missing their star guards in Tyrese Maxey and Trae Young, Atlanta was ultimately able to squeak out a tight win over the 76ers for the second time in two weeks.
Late in this game, a moment of controversy ensued when the Hawks were inbounding the ball, as Nickeil Alexander-Walker appeared to catch the ball in the frontcourt and then dribble into the backcourt, which was not called as a violation. Despite the NBA rulebook stating that a player's momentum is allowed to take them into the backcourt, which was clearly the case here, that didn't stop 76ers commentator Alaa Abdelnaby from incorrectly stating that the officials missed the call.
Since then, the NBA referees have used their official account on X, formerly Twitter, to fire back at Abdelnaby.
“This was not a backcourt violation and has never been a backcourt violation. For those calling the game, there is a responsibility to know the NBA rules and explain them correctly in order to properly educate the fans,” they wrote, before tagging Abdelnaby.
The account then provided numerous other examples in a thread to show why the call was correct.
Still, that likely won't make the loss much easier to stomach for 76ers fans, who saw their team drop to 14-11 with the loss, in a logjam with several other teams between number three and number nine in the East, separated by just a half game.
In any case, the 76ers now have four days off before they will next take the floor on Friday evening against the New York Knicks. That game is set to tip off at 7:00 pm ET from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.
