Veteran sports analyst Stephen A. Smith agrees with Austin Rivers' take on the current state of NBA officiating: it's “utter bulls**t.”
Smith said as much as he responded to Rivers' social media post detailing how much he abhors the referees making the game about themselves instead of the players and the sport itself. It came after Minnesota Timberwolves guard was called for a tech during Sunday's game against the Golden State Warriors for celebrating a poster dunk.
For those who missed it, Edwards was slapped with a taunting technical foul late in the third quarter of the contest after he celebrated his poster dunk on Dario Saric. The problem is it wasn't really much of a taunting since it only lasted for a brief moment, and it's easy to argue Ant-Man was simply hyped up about his dunk. Regardless, he was given a tech for such a simple and normal thing to do in a highly emotional game.
“Can we stop giving guys techs for stare downs…it's stupid and takes away from the game. Happened again tonight with Ant. Yall want guys to compete and play with an edge. It's all passion nothing personal. Stop that BS,” Rivers wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Stephen A. Smith saw Austin Rivers' post and couldn't help but agree with him, going as far as to saying that the league is becoming really “soft” by allowing such calls.
“Amen. Utter bulls**t. Totally agree. The combativeness sells. It matters. It’s validates competitiveness. Sick of how soft are trying to make this game,” Smith declared.
It's not the first time it happened this season, with Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo falling victim and getting ejected during their game against the Detroit Pistons for such egregious call as well. And when asked to explain the decision, the officials only said Antetokounmpo turned to his opponent and taunted him, leading to an unsportsmanlike conduct and a “taunting technical foul.”
Unfortunately for the players and fans of the game, until Adam Silver and co. address the concern, it will only continue and they can't do anything about it. Hopefully, though, the NBA takes a look at it sooner rather than later.
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