The Indiana Pacers played a nip-and-tuck game against the Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday night, but ultimately came up short in a 129-126 overtime loss. Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton had 16 points and 12 assists in the game, but it’s his response to the NBA’s two-minute report that’s making news more than his performance on the court.
The league acknowledged there were several calls or non-calls that hurt both teams, a report that left Tyrese Haliburton in disbelief over the amount of whistles (or non-whistles) that happened during the game.
If we’re being honest with ourselves, it’s no secret the officiating is a hot-button topic when watching any sport. When a team, or a fan’s favorite team, loses a game, the referees are always the easy target as to why that result occurred.
It’s understood why the NBA wants to bring a certain amount of accountability to increase call accuracy and bring transparency. In games that are close, players understand calls will be missed, but a report on how accurate the calls were probably don’t make them feel any better after a loss.
For that reason, it’s probably better if the reports don’t come out, because the last thing any league wants is to have the officiating take the headlines away from the players the fans tune in to watch.
In a sport like basketball, where the athletes are bigger, faster and stronger than ever before, it’s almost impossible to get every call right. All the players ask is for refs to be consistent.
Judging off of Haliburton’s reaction to this two-minute report, less of those might help as well.