The theme of the 2016 NBA Playoffs has been atrocious officiating. There have been more major mistakes than you can count on your two hands and at least two of them have gone against the San Antonio Spurs in their series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The egregious mistakes have led Spurs fans to believe that the NBA is conspiring against them.
Conspiracy: NBA doesn’t want the Spurs to win
Advertisement— Alex Brown (@alexb_thegreat) May 11, 2016
Prediction: Spurs will win game 6 by double digits and get most of the calls despite being on the road. NBA conspiracy, they want a game 7!
— Eric Jackson (@ecjackson77) May 11, 2016
@Colby_Daniels I hate conspiracy theories but my God it looks like the NBA ordered a spurs win. It’s insanely inconsistent
— Eddy (@EddyMcdaniels) May 11, 2016
@JayDoubles@NBA@spurs Its no conspiracy lol THE NBA IS JUST SOFT!! ITS annoying how bad the REFS of the #NBA are. players need to go ACT.
— Jerome Nelson (@Holmesfifth) May 11, 2016
The latest call in question came towards the end of the Spurs’ 95-91 loss in Game 5. With 9.3 seconds left on the clock, the Thunder inbounded the ball to Russell Westbrook who was immediately fouled by Kawhi Leonard. Despite a referee being right in front of the play, however, the foul was never called and Westbrook drove to the hoop where a foul was called on LaMarcus Aldridge, but he hit the shot for a three-point play.
Russ with the AND-1 as the @okcthunder take the lead! https://t.co/hj3mbhhQ6R
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 11, 2016
Conspiracy theory or not, the referees have done a horrendous job overall in these playoffs and something must be done over the offseason. I don’t know if that means replacing officials or implementing some sort of discipline system, but these mistakes can’t be made at the highest level. It’s flat out unacceptable.