Ime Udoka Was Ejected Last Night All Because He Started Talking Shit To LeBron James
It's no secret that the NBA has an issue when it comes to their officials dishing out ejections. It's part of the larger officiating problem that Adam Silver has to know he has but still chooses to ignore, and it's clear that when it comes to getting tossed, nobody is safe. We've seen Giannis, Jokic, Tatum etc all get ejected for absolutely nothing
As weak as those plays were, at least they were somewhat involved with an official. None of them were ejection worthy in my opinion, but at least it was between a player and a ref.
What I can't ever really remember seeing is what happened last night towards the end of the Lakers/Rockets game between LeBron and Ime Udoka
Listen, if a ref is going to stick himself in between a player and a coach just having a chat on the sidelines, where NONE of it is directed towards the official, they in no way shape or form should be allowed to issue a tech or throw someone out. I mean what the hell are we doing here? This is sports! This is basketball! People talk shit all the time, so what's the problem. I can understand if someone made contact with the official in an attempt to fight or something, but everyone was just standing there!
Oh, did someone say a bad word? The horror! I know we saw this after every insane NBA ejecection, but this one might have truly been the worst one I've ever seen. That ref is a gigantic loser for inserting themselves into something that clearly in no way shape or form had anything to do with them. Double techs? Really? REALLY?
Sick league Adam Silver, keep pretending like you don't have a gigantic officiating problem in your league. Shit like this is only happening every night, no need to address it or anything. Keep up the good work!
Now, in terms of what was said, it depends on who you want to believe
You know Ime really doesn't like LeBron because he calls him "the player" instead of his name. That was the dead giveaway for me as someone who watched a whole year of Ime pressers. If you want to take stock in what the internet is saying, it was Ime apparently calling LeBron a "soft ass boy" or "what are you gonna do about it soft ass bitttch" that was the final straw for that ref. Either way, both are pretty funny and neither should ever result in an ejection. Is he even wrong? I suppose that's a different topic for a different day. There are also claims that LeBron went down the Nia Long trash talking route, but I'm not sure I buy that. That would be insane.
Then again, watch again and look at the woman behind Ime. LeBron had to have said something serious to warrant that type of reaction
The "getting punked" comment felt familiar as well since that's an Ime go to when his team gets rocked
Which, as funny as that interaction may have been, is what happened to the Rockets in this game. In fact, the honeymoon phase may be starting to wear off now that the Rockets have dropped 6 of their last 8 and are the only team in the NBA this season that is yet to win on the road (0-8). That's not great. The good news is they're still in the top 10 seeds and a good week can have them as high as 6th, but you can't be winless on the road. We saw what it meant for last year's Warriors who went 11-30 on the road last year, and this HOU team is not the Warriors.
So while we'll all have fun with these clips and make jokes, let's not lose sight of the fact that this happened all because an official stuck themselves in the middle of those two for no reason. You don't think players say crazy things to one another over the course of a game? These refs would give out dozens of techs a game if they just inserted themselves in the middle like that. There was no fight, there was nothing to "break up". To me this just goes to show how big of a problem the league has right now with their refs. Forget the ejection, focus on that part, and freaking do something about it already. It's getting embarrassing.