Jazz vs. Thunder: NBA refs mistakenly call foul on wrong player after Russell Westbrook gets clobbered by teammate
Steven Adams was the one who actually made contact with Russell Westbrook
The relationship between referees and players has been at an all-time low this season, and calls like the one in the first quarter of Game 2 between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the main reasons why.
Refs miss calls all the time, but usually it's just a matter of the game being too fast, or the refs not being able to see what actually happened. But their erroneous foul call on Royce O'Neale late in the first quarter was due to none of those things. To be honest, it's not clear exactly what the problem was on this play, as the refs made a shockingly bad call.
After Russell Westbrook missed a mid-range jumper, the ball bounded back towards the free-throw line, and Westbrook went back up to try and recover his miss. As he did so, Steven Adams accidentally smacked him on the shoulder while also trying to get the rebound. But for some reason, the refs called a foul on the Jazz's O'Neale, who was a few feet away, and didn't even attempt to get the ball.
Here's the play in real time, where it's pretty clear it was Adams who hit Westbrook.
And here it is in slow-motion, where it's blatantly clear what happened.
The ref who called the foul on Oneale when he wasn't near the play and it was clear that Steven Adams was the one who hit Westbrook can't ref another playoff game pic.twitter.com/mvaYNg9tRX
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 24, 2018
Again, refs are human, and they make mistakes. But stuff like this just shouldn't be happening when there's three referees on the court. Surely someone should have seen what actually happened.
















