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“Referees just made sure America’s darling Stephen Curry advances to play the Suns”: Skip Bayless is disgruntled by officials calling Flagrant 2 on Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks

Akash Murty
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"Referees just made sure America's darling Stephen Curry advances to play the Suns": Skip Bayless is disgruntled by officials calling Flagrant 2 on Grizzlies' Dillon Brooks

Another Warriors – Grizzlies game, another ejection, but this time it’s not anyone from the Stephen Curry camp who got the Flagrant 2.

Referring will be a focal point in these Playoffs and the NBA is going to have to do something to get the quality of officiating up where it should be for the grandest Basketball stage of the world.

After a handful of badly officiated games in Round 1, much better was expected of the referees as Conference Semi-finals started. But nothing changed as Draymond Green got a Flagrant 2 and hence an ejection in the first game of the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors series.

Also read: “You don’t see many players like Stephen Curry!”: Jazz’s Eric Paschall raves about incredible his former teammate from his time with Warriors

Although it didn’t result in the Warriors losing the game, it would certainly have been a costly decision as the game went down to the wire and the Dubs won it 117-166 in Memphis.

There was another ejection much earlier in the 2nd game as the Warriors visited the FedEx Forum on Tuesday to seek another victory and get done with the series early. But this time it was a Memphis player who came under the hammer.

“The refs just made sure America’s darling Stephen Curry advances to play the Suns”: Skip Bayless, on Dillon Brook’s ejection

Although Grizzlies fans and much of the internet wouldn’t agree, so wouldn’t a new Grizzlies bug from Fox Sports, Dillon Brooks did deserve a Flagrant 2 by the definition of it for this play on Gary Payton II.

Now, Skip Bayless believes referees are being biased towards Stephen Curry and Co in a bid to get the advanced to the Conference Finals and to the Championship.

That’s a catchy line, agreed. But that’s what it is, it can’t be anything more than that. He couldn’t have believed what he is saying himself a couple of days back when Green was ejected.

By the same definition of Flagrant two that cannot have Brooks escape whether it’s a playoff game or not, Draymond wasn’t at fault at all for his Game 1 foul.

Also read: “You don’t see many players like Stephen Curry!”: Jazz’s Eric Paschall raves about incredible his former teammate from his time with Warriors

If there was a ploy to get the Warriors forward, why would referees get their most important player out of the most important game of the series, which generally builds momentum? That’s just Skip being Skip, nothing else.

About the author

Akash Murty

Akash Murty

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An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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