It’s no secret that officiating LeBron James is among the hardest jobs for a referee. It’s also not a secret now how much LeBron James complains about calls.
Advertisement
The Lakers led the game by 2 points at halftime, but there was a large free throw disparity between the two teams. In fact, only LeBron James on the Lakers got any free throws for them at all.
Duncan Robinson shot more free throws than James at one point in the half. The disparity in the free throw calls must have been a real concern for James given how he was complaining.
LeBron James should stop complaining for fouls, according to Jay Williams
Jay Williams took James’s constant cribbing about calls apart in the ESPN halftime show for Game 4. James was spotted making some kind of complaint or the other to the referees quite a lot tonight.
Given how many calls he earns and how many he thinks are missed on him, it does make a bit of sense to complain. But according to Williams, he’s gone over the top for way too long now.
While Williams does have a point, it has always been difficult to referee James. He initiates most of the contact on his drives himself, so it is tough to delineate when exactly he’s being fouled, and when he’s doing the fouling.
Usually, the offensive player gets the referee’s benefit of the doubt, but in LeBron’s case, he has a right to believe that he should be getting more calls.
The free throw disparity on the night corrected itself in the 4th quarter as the Lakers took Game 4 with a 6-point margin.
