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Referees, just like any player or coach in professional sports, are prone to making mistakes. The only difference in a ref making a mistake is that the game’s outcome can be changed without having any influence from either team.
While we still need referees to maintain the rule sets of each sport, the NBA has suffered from several particularly controversial refereeing decisions. In this article, we’ll outline the most controversial refereeing decisions in NBA playoff history, as well as dissect who was playing and what controversial calls were made.
In the early round of the 2010 NBA Western Conference playoffs, one of the most controversial decisions in NBA playoff history was made by referee Joey Crawford. During the middle of the third quarter, Crawford called a foul on Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns, although during the replay, the player accused of committing the foul, Marcus Camby, was at least 10-15 feet away from Nash at the time of the call, which led to mass confusion of the surrounding players in fans, especially upon watching the replay.
For the final game of the 2006 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki, currently at 29 points, was called for committing a foul against the Heat’s Dwyane Wade immediately after hitting an important jump shot. Upon reviewing the replay, it was clear that Wade’s elbow had hit the chest of Nowitzki, leading the foul to be called in the completely wrong direction. In the end, Wade easily sunk his free throws, earning Miami their first NBA ring in history.
With just 27 seconds left in the 1988 NBA Finals, the Pistons held a narrow 102-101 lead over the Lakers. At this time, the Pistons’ Bill Laimbeer, who had accumulated five fouls already, was guarding Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Lakers. Abdul-Jabbar barely rimmed out a shot as he was so-called fouled by Laimbeer. While fans and officials can argue either way that this was or wasn’t a foul, Abdul-Jabbar made his free throws from the spot to lift the Lakers for the win, although apparently upon closer inspection, Kareem might’ve carried the ball for travel before the foul was even committed, making this one of the most controversial refereeing decisions in NBA playoff history to ever occur.
The 2007 NBA Western Conference Semifinals Game 3 between the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs was undoubtedly one of the most controversial NBA games of all time. In this one, multiple technical fouls were handed out, and the Suns’ Amar’e Stoudemire would play only 20 minutes due to foul trouble. Steve Nash was fouled numerous times, some of which weren’t called, causing basketball fans, analysts, coaches and players alike to berate the NBA officiating that year as a result of one of the most controversial refereeing decisions in NBA playoff history.
Considered one of the most controversial games in the history of the NBA, the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals Game 6 between the Kings and Lakers was led by ex-referee Tim Donaghy. Donaghy claimed the NBA enjoyed the series so much that they wanted to ensure an extra game would be played, and he accused the NBA of advising referees to fix different games. In this game, many LA committed fouls were blatantly ignored, such as Kobe Bryant throwing elbows, and Shaq pushing around Vlade Divac, all of which weren’t called to the Lakers’ advantage. In essence, this game was one of the worst officiated NBA games, making it one of the most controversial refereeing decisions in NBA playoff history.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.