The Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Los Angeles Clippers on a controversial play Wednesday night. But NBC Sports Philadelphia Sixers analyst Alaa Abdelnaby took issue with the officiating long before that.
With less than one minute to go in the game, Clippers coach Ty Lue won a challenge on an out of bounds call to regain possession of the ball. Initially, the officials determined the ball bounced off Clippers forward Paul George, but after review, the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey determined it was last touched by the Sixers’ Kelly Oubre Jr.
“That’s what you see, really?” Abdelnaby ranted after the overturned call was announced. “You saw the ball go off of Kelly last? Honestly, that’s what you saw? You talk all that time, wasted all of our time, to come up with that nonsense? What are you looking at in Secaucus, people?! What are you looking at?!”
Kawhi Leonard quickly capitalized on the call for the Clippers, driving to the basket for the score and drawing a foul, which gave Abdelnaby fuel to continue his tirade against the refs.
“I hope the officials are happy with themselves,” the 76ers analyst said to play-by-play voice Kate Scott. “Because that’s ridiculous…none of this play should even count because it should be Sixers ball. We should be on the other end of the floor.”
And after Leonard proceeded to give the Clippers a one-point lead by making the free throw, it caused Abdelnaby to lose all faith in the NBA’s replay review process.
“I’m dead set against the reviews now,” Abdelnaby continued. “I’m absolutely convinced that they’re useless and why are we even wasting our time going through them you’re not gonna come up with the correct play…Sometimes, when you’re on the road, you assume you have to beat eight. That means the five and the three officials. But you don’t think of that at home.”
In defense of the referees in Philadelphia Wednesday night, they initially had the out of bounds call going the Sixers way. Once it gets challenged by Lue, the replay goes to Secaucus where it was overturned. But while Abdelnaby was already irate, the debated out-of-bounds decision wasn’t even the most controversial call of the game.
Ironically, however, the most controversial call still featured George and Oubre. In the closing seconds of the Clippers’ win, Oubre drove to the basket and was stopped from scoring by George. Despite contact from George, no call was made. But after the game, referee Kevin Scott admitted Oubre was fouled and should have been sent to the line with 0.2 seconds left.
“They’ve been awful all night,” Abdelnaby ranted as 76ers coach Nick Nurse berated the officials after the missed call. “All night. I don’t blame him one bit. I don’t blame him one bit. That was some terrible, TERRIBLE officiating.”
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com