Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has always been a difficult player to officiate due to combination of size, strength and speed. James can finish through contact better than just about anyone in NBA history, leading to a lot of potential foul calls being missed.
This season, in particular, there has seemed to be a lot of gripes with NBA officiating, not just by James and the Lakers, but all across the league.
James spoke about this in the latest episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast with Steve Nash, calling for more consistency when it comes to officiating and the physicality they allow:
“As a player it’s so inconsistent, the way it’s called, and as players we just want consistency. On any given night you can have one official telling you one thing, and then another official telling you another thing. My take is like, is this not a world league conversation that you guys are having to like, this is how we’re officiating these plays and this is how we’re officiating these moves, this is how we’re officiating this. Or is it just like dependent on the ref? So that’s the most frustrating part when you’re out there and sometimes you can get away with certain things… It’s like even defensively, some games you’re allowed to get away with completely bear hugging guys and holding them. And then two nights later, you can barely put your hands on guys. It’s like OK, what are we doing? The emphasis on the evolution of the gather step and the step through after already establishing the pivot foot, I do not have the answer. I have no idea.”
This is a reasonable request from James as players just want consistency so they know what is allowed and what isn’t. If the same play is called a foul on one possession and nothing on the next, then that is only gonna lead to more confusion.
Considering James is in his 23rd NBA season, he should know what is a foul and what isn’t by now, but the criteria for that seems to always be changing.
Mike Brown thinks LeBron James can play forever
It remains to be seen if this will be LeBron James’ best season or if he will return for a 24th campaign. One person who thinks he can keep playing is New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown, who coach James is Cleveland early in his career.
Brown continues to be amazed by what LeBron is doing, believing he can continue playing as long as he wants.
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