Carmelo Anthony wants Russell Westbrook to know he has an ally in him—and he’s willing to (most likely) lighten his bank account to prove it.
The reigning MVP was ejected late in the fourth quarter of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Monday night win over the Sacramento Kings. Here’s a clip of what went down:
Meanwhile in OKC…Russ just got ejected. pic.twitter.com/5EwTNinXgy
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 16, 2018
The refs calling Westbrook for a travel instead of whistling the Kings for whacking him in the face left the point guard hot. And his subsequent ejection prompted the following response from Anthony, per ESPN.com’s Royce Young:
Carmelo Anthony, being asked about what he said last week about communication with referees, cut off the question: "I'm done with them. I'm done with the refs. No disrespect, but I'm done with those guys."
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) January 16, 2018
Anthony’s own frustration is hardly surprising. He’s long played the victim card when it comes to the officials, and he’s often had a case. Watch his headband bandy about on drives to the basket, and you frequently wonder why more whistles don’t go in his favor.
This isn’t the first time Anthony has called out the refereeing since joining the Thunder either. Just last Tuesday, he talked about the tension building between the officials and players, again per Young:
“The game has changed a lot since I came in 15 years ago, the players and the officials had that dialogue, whether it was good or whether it was bad, there was always a point where they would let you get a little steam off, and then would come to you and say that’s enough, let’s move on,” Anthony said. “And now, the trigger is too quick. You look at somebody wrong, you get a technical foul. You say one wrong thing, you get a technical foul. So I think that’s the difference from when I came in, the dialogue and communication and the relationship the players and officials [had] when I first came in and from now is a lot different.”
Indeed, the relationship between players and referees is becoming a contentious point of debate, one led by the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green and recently acknowledged by NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Is there a solution in sight? We can’t really be sure. Maybe something gets hashed out at a meeting over All-Star Weekend. Perhaps it happens before then. Maybe we’ll have to wait until the offseason before anything meaningful unfolds.
Whatever happens, the league can only hope these kerfuffles don’t turn more hostile. Heated on-court exchanges are okay, as are postgame comments that culminate in fines. But with tensions continuing to rise, the NBA has to at least be concerned about things eventually taking a turn for the physical—a disaster scenario in so many ways.
