Those who watched Monday night’s game between the San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers saw an unusual sequence. Philadelphia’s Andre Drummond was ejected from the game and then quickly reinstated after the review. So, what happened? The referee who ejected Drummond messed up — something she acknowledged in slightly more colorful language.
The ejection came when San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama fell hard to the ground while battling with Embiid in the low post. Referee Jenna Schroeder blew her whistle and quickly ejected Drummond, assuming he had something to do with Wembanyama’s fall. Only, that wasn’t the case.
A closer look at the play showed that Wembanyama either flopped or just simply tripped over his own feet.
While most NBA ejections are final, this one was not. The play was reviewed and overturned, as there was enough evidence to show that Drummond didn’t do anything wrong. With that, the foul called against him — and the subsequent ejection — were both overturned. And as Schroeder was explaining it to the Philadelphia bench, she made it clear that the mistake was hers.
“I f***** up,” she said.
Honesty is the best policy, especially when there’s a way to fix the mistake.
Unfortunately for the 76ers, that was not their last interaction with Schroeder on the night. Later in the game, Joel Embiid was called for an offensive foul against Wembanyama and quickly picked up two technical fouls while arguing with Schroeder. That ejection was not overturned.
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