Fred VanVleet Specifically Calls Out Referee Ben Taylor and NBA Reffing

[Johnny Bball]

I'm really interested to hear the former players podcasts etc. about this. It should generate a lot of disucssion.

[Memories]

Lol good. I want to see more of this and a REAL uprising from the player movement.

Refs are corrupt as hell, and with gambling now being more common than ever, there is definitely bull crap going on behind the scenes. I want to see more players call refs out, especially by name. Refs need to finally be held accountable. They have way too much power.

this is a Perkins level defamatory accusation

You are naive as hell if you think there isn’t corruption that goes on with NBA refs. Especially after the whole Tim Dongnahy scandal.

The fact that Scott Foster IS STILL a ref through out it all is criminal.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

can't wait to see the montage of every Ben Taylor bad whistle.

[Duffman100]

can't wait to see the montage of every Ben Taylor bad whistle.

Someone is working on this and uploading to youtube as we speak.

[Snacks]

I think officiating criticism is getting out of hand, players allow themselves to behave in ways that undermine officials authority, Luka and Draymond have assigned themselves as evaluators of officiating and complain about every call, and it's seeping into the rest of the league, Kidd and Kerr aren't able to contain their players, Silver should put his foot down and make an example of repeat offenders.
Human error will always take part, the game is hard to officiate when we keep getting mismatches, 6' Lillard bumping into bigs, 6'8" thick Luka posting up small guards, even on replays it's not clear who committed the foul.
We have mega stars like KD who made a HoF career, faced a lot of physicality, without constant run ins with officials, there are other ways to go about your gripes with how you're officiated, maybe the league should set up a backdoor channel for coaching staffs to voice their criticism, but not in game and in post game conferences.

One does not make the other less important. Both need to be addressed.

[The Rebel]

Watch on YouTube

Vince Carter's take.

The fact that you have to play a game with the refs tells you how corrupt the league is lol.

So, not only do the players have to prepare for the opposing team but also the refs. With gambling involved there needs to be a centralized area where these guys are evaluated, but how do you do this without corruption?

The league reviews every game, although it appears that most of those involved with the reviews are members of the refs union.

[hyper316]

Lol good. I want to see more of this and a REAL uprising from the player movement.

Refs are corrupt as hell, and with gambling now being more common than ever, there is definitely bull crap going on behind the scenes. I want to see more players call refs out, especially by name. Refs need to finally be held accountable. They have way too much power.

this is a Perkins level defamatory accusation

You are naive as hell if you think there isn’t corruption that goes on with NBA refs. Especially after the whole Tim Dongnahy scandal.

The fact that Scott Foster IS STILL a ref through out it all is criminal.

I find it funny how Donaghy said he was just good friends with Foster, often would call before, after game and even halftime to talk totally unrelated to sports betting. When you have a convicted criminal, his words holds no water. It crazy that Foster is still in the league, it's NBA don't want to make a mess of it and just pin it to 1 guy and brush all the rest under the rug.

[Duffman100]

Watch on YouTube

Vince Carter's take.

The fact that you have to play a game with the refs tells you how corrupt the league is lol.

So, not only do the players have to prepare for the opposing team but also the refs. With gambling involved there needs to be a centralized area where these guys are evaluated, but how do you do this without corruption?

The league reviews every game, although it appears that most of those involved with the reviews are members of the refs union.

"We have determined that we made no mistakes". LEGIT.

[pingpongrac]

This was the 2nd straight game where the Raptors came out with an early lead and the refs immediately started calling fouls only on the Raptors to change the momentum. This kind of game gardening makes for good entertainment but is frustrating for players. They deserve the right to complain. Refs need to chill out. Either call it straight or accept that how you influence games is going to lead to emotional outbursts. These guys do not lose jobs when they fail. Players and coaches do.

Just for a bit more context...Toronto jumped out to a 34-29 lead against Denver after 12 minutes on Monday in which Toronto was called for 2 fouls (2 DEN FTA) and Denver was called for 6 fouls (10 TOR FTA). The rest of the game Toronto was called for 18 fouls (21 DEN FTA) while Denver was called for just 6 fouls (10 TOR FTA). Then Toronto jumped out to a 25-17 lead against Los Angeles after 12 minutes last night in which Toronto was called for 5 fouls (8 LAC FTA) and Los Angeles was called for 3 fouls (4 TOR FTA). The rest of the game Toronto was called for 18 fouls (23 LAC FTA) while Los Angeles was called for 15 fouls (10 TOR FTA). Those are huge swings.

The whistle hasn't been very kind to Toronto on this road trip as a whole. They're averaging 16.3 FTA (-8.0 compared to season average) while opponents are averaging 25.0 FTA (+1.6 compared to season average against opponents) in the first 4 games. It's not like their opponents are typically teams that dominate the battle of the paint/free throw line either; the Wizards (+0.7 FTA disparity and +0.0 PITP disparity), Nuggets (-0.9 FTA disparity and +1.8 PITP disparity) and Clippers (+1.5 FTA disparity and -6.3 PITP disparity) are all teams that the Raptors (+0.9 FTA disparity and +2.8 PITP disparity) should theoretically have an advantage when it comes to scoring at the line and in the paint, but it seems like every call has been going against them.

I'm surprised something like this wasn't said after the Denver game, but it makes sense why FVV went off after last night's game. There were a lot of bad calls/non-calls that went against Toronto while the Clippers were fighting their way back into the game then taking control, especially in the 4th quarter where LAC had a 13-4 advantage at the line. Considering the weak tech assessed to FVV while also taking into account the FVV/Taylor history this season (3 of FVV's 8 techs have been directly called by Taylor in just 6 games while 2 others were called in games Taylor was also officiating), it becomes a lot more clear why FVV went off in the post-game presser.

[DelAbbot]

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[Zeno]

I don’t think you need to go down the whole match fixing path to say that some officials are bad at their jobs or unprofessional in how they call the game. I mean we just had a public statement from the refs about sleepless nights cause of missing a call on Lebron. How they sleep after messing up calls on other teams? The fact the league didn’t issue a statement about those comments tells you they just don’t care about the appearance of impartiality.

[nikster]

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For a second I was wondering the audio seemed off

[DelAbbot]

Read on Twitter

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For a second I was wondering the audio seemed off

The coming age of AI will prove a boom for internet memes

[Lunartic]

I have been watching the NBA for 25 years, and I just recently was in a state where sports betting is legal so I dabbled in it while there. (I had never bet on the NBA before then and doubted people in the past that told me it was rigged, you would always hear people say "don't bet on the NBA").

I can say without a doubt that at least 70% of NBA games are manipulated for spread, over/under, and even live moneyline purposes.

I am not necessarily saying that 70% of the overall outcomes win/loss are manipulated, but I learned to stay away from spread/over under QUICK. The referees are the ones controlling these games.

Its a shame to find out for real that after 25 years the game you grew up watching and loving is diluted with bull like referee manipulation.

Good on FVV, I can't imagine just how many of these refs are still betting, or if it is just orders that they are given to please Vegas.

Yep, anyone that does sports betting quickly notices that NBA spreads aren't worth betting on, the refs clearly make their money by controlling the spread via quick fouls on scorers/defenders/technical fouls.

If refs were controlling the spreads, you'd think you might use that information to your advantage as a sports better. Also I don't think "anyone who does sports betting quickly" notices this, but maybe i'm wrong.

How would I be able to use that to my benefit? I don't know if the refs decide to control the spread or let it ride thus the refs are adding a new dimension and thus I'm actually taking a larger risk. By the time you notice, the game is about over.

And sure, I mis-worded that;

"anyone intelligent with the ability to notice clear and obvious trends quickly notices..."

The refs will routinely call a bunch of ticky tack fouls at the ends of games, sending scrubs to the FT line in order to control the spread.

[NyKnicks1714]

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Nah, whoever made this tried too hard. Would have been 10x funnier just being the "FOR LIFE" with Silver saying Fred VanVleet instead of Donald Sterling.

[ATLTimekeeper]

I don’t think you need to go down the whole match fixing path to say that some officials are bad at their jobs or unprofessional in how they call the game. I mean we just had a public statement from the refs about sleepless nights cause of missing a call on Lebron. How they sleep after messing up calls on other teams? The fact the league didn’t issue a statement about those comments tells you they just don’t care about the appearance of impartiality.

I remember when that incident happened all I could think of was that LeBron is probably + 300 in bad calls at the end of games that went in his favour and he still got an apology!

[City of Trees]

Fred lived long enough to become the people's champion. Good for him.

[The Rebel]

Yep, anyone that does sports betting quickly notices that NBA spreads aren't worth betting on, the refs clearly make their money by controlling the spread via quick fouls on scorers/defenders/technical fouls.

If refs were controlling the spreads, you'd think you might use that information to your advantage as a sports better. Also I don't think "anyone who does sports betting quickly" notices this, but maybe i'm wrong.

How would I be able to use that to my benefit? I don't know if the refs decide to control the spread or let it ride thus the refs are adding a new dimension and thus I'm actually taking a larger risk. By the time you notice, the game is about over.

And sure, I mis-worded that;

"anyone intelligent with the ability to notice clear and obvious trends quickly notices..."

The refs will routinely call a bunch of ticky tack fouls at the ends of games, sending scrubs to the FT line in order to control the spread.

I try to use what refs I know that don't like certain players or certain teams. Then I bet the under on individual players if I know it is a player or team if they don't like the team. In other words what Donaghy admitted to doing. I hit about 70% of those bets.

[ItsDanger]

In other news, some people suck at their jobs. It is possible. Or they're very good, depending on your perspective.

[Zeno]

I don’t think you need to go down the whole match fixing path to say that some officials are bad at their jobs or unprofessional in how they call the game. I mean we just had a public statement from the refs about sleepless nights cause of missing a call on Lebron. How they sleep after messing up calls on other teams? The fact the league didn’t issue a statement about those comments tells you they just don’t care about the appearance of impartiality.

I remember when that incident happened all I could think of was that LeBron is probably + 300 in bad calls at the end of games that went in his favour and he still got an apology!

I agree the balance sheet is probably way way in his favour but that to me is besides the point. The way the refs handled the aftermath of that missed call and the league not issuing comment of any kind against their apology being made throws the legitimacy of the league into question. To me it was worse than any on court mistake made by refs this season.