The Houston Rockets guard was frustrated with the inconsistency of calls made by referees at Wednesday night’s game in Brooklyn, NY. The NBA is currently considering implementing a rule that would require more than two refs to be present during any on-court call.
The “brooklyn nets team” is a professional basketball team based in Brooklyn, New York. The team was founded in 1967 and is the only current NBA franchise located in New York City.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — James Harden of the Brooklyn Nets believes he is not receiving the benefit of the whistle as often as he used to.
After only going to the line four times in a 136-125 defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night, the 32-year-old made it apparent. When questioned why he doesn’t believe he’s receiving as many calls as he used to, Harden said he didn’t know the answer.
Harden said, “It’s an excellent question.” “I’m not sure. I’m not even going to bring it up. But it’s obviously the same calls the players are receiving when I go to the hoop. Obviously, you won’t be able to contact all of them. However, there are those where there are obvious stiff-arms, tripping, and other such occurrences. However, there is no consistency on the opposite end of the spectrum. As a result, it’s aggravating.”
Nets coach Steve Nash mirrored Harden’s sentiments, adding that the All-Star guard isn’t always treated fairly by officials.
“I believe there are evenings when it’s fair,” Nash said, “even incorporating this year’s points of focus.” “Then there are the nights when he feels like he’s being singled out. It simply gets grouped in with the point of focus where he’s committing the foul, which isn’t necessarily the case.”
Nash emphasizes the NBA’s decision to change the way certain sequences are called before to the season, particularly for offensive players attempting to make contact and generate more free throws. Because of their ability to regularly go to the line, Harden and Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks were expected to be impacted more than other players.
The fascinating thing about the regulation change is that Harden is going to the foul line almost twice as often this season (8.2 attempts) than he was a year ago (7.3 attempts). Despite this, there have been several instances this season of Harden driving to the hoop and not receiving the same whistle he did previously in his career.
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Harden admits to being a touch “passive” during Sunday’s 4-for-13 performance, despite what he believed was a lack of calls on Sunday and at times over the year.
“I wasn’t attacking the way I needed to attack consistently,” Harden said. “We had a lot of rim and three-point chances, but I put it on myself in terms of not being able to go to the basket consistently like I needed to.”
Despite Harden’s dissatisfaction, Nets guard Kyrie Irving is sure that his teammate would acclimate to the new rules over the season.
“I believe teams have adjusted, referees have adjusted, and now we have to adapt,” Irving said. “He goes in really aggressively [to the paint], and we want him to keep doing it.” He’ll go by the name James. We know who James is — we know him well — so he’ll be himself, but the whistle may blow either way night after night.
“And I believe it partly depends on the [officiating] team we have, but we simply want to get the game started with a consistent whistle. And we believe he deserves that respect when he goes in there and makes some contact. We are aware of his identity. We’re aware that he makes it to the free throw line. He’s being fouled on a lot of his downward drives. And although some of them may go either way, we just want a constant whistle.”
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