JB DeRosa, an NBA referee is currently under heavy criticism for calling a ridiculous foul on Luka Doncic. We are more than a quarter of the way into the NBA season and teams are desperately fighting for good positions in their respective conferences. Especially ones that are not off to a particularly good start.
Luka and the Dallas Mavericks faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder recently. During the game, DeRosa, the referee on the court made a bizarre call going against the Mavs superstar. NBA fans should undoubtedly want to know more about him and what he did. Additionally, understanding the context and consequences of his actions is also important.
Not exactly sure what preceded it, but Mark Daigneault told official JB DeRosa: “We’re not here for the Doncic MVP game.”
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) December 13, 2022
JB DeRosa is quite an experienced NBA referee. He is in his 6th year and has officiated more than 250 regular season games. Apparently, refereeing lies in his genetics as his father Joe DeRosa was also an NBA official. However, none of that justifies what he did in the game between Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas Mavericks.
Luka Doncic reacts to the technical foul against Oklahoma City Thunder
The incident in question occurred during the early stages of the third quarter of the game. OKC star Shai Gilgeous Alexander drove to the rim while being guarded by Mavericks forward Dwight Powell. SGA drove low and got past Powell to finish with a layup. Moreover, Dwight’s half-hearted defense earned Alexander an opportunity to score an “and 1”.
Luka Doncic got a technical foul for yelling at his teammate, Dwight Powell. He was not happy 😅pic.twitter.com/I6Pb24ZSX2
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) December 13, 2022
Luka Doncic was clearly annoyed by this lack of defensive effort from his teammate and let him hear it. For some reason, DeRosa decided this act was deserving of a technical foul. The second he called it, Doncic and his other teammates burst out in protest. He claimed that he was just talking to his teammate.
Bro I ain’t even mad about it cause it’s Luka and he’s yelling after every play pic.twitter.com/7KIuxeezOk
— black (@black666_____) December 13, 2022
It is quite unheard off for NBA officials to call technical fouls for conversations within a team. Most of the time, they are called for taunting or disrespecting the opposition or officials. Moreover, in this case, Powell didn’t react brashly or escalate the situation, making this call by DeRosa very questionable.
NBA refs really have a complex
— Baracuda 🇩🇪 (@Baracuda91) December 13, 2022
Refs are getting extremely ridicolous. They get paid 205 K per year for that ?
— Li Pi (@LPFE1972) December 13, 2022
Luka was interviewed post-game and asked for his side of the story, “I’ll get that one back for sure…He said that I looked at him, but I didn’t look at him. We sent about 7 angles to the NBA office so they can see I was yelling to teammates.”
Luka Doncic on his technical foul vs. Thunder: “I’ll get that one back for sure.”
On referee explanation/sending video to NBA: “He said that I looked to him, but I didn’t look at him. We sent about seven angles to the NBA office so they can see I was yelling to teammates.” pic.twitter.com/eQtmnG6ybs
— Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) December 13, 2022
At least it will get rescinded
— Queens To Midtown: All Mets & Knicks (@AllAccessNYKNYM) December 13, 2022
Probably a Tony Brothers bff. Why would he think Luka is yelling at him even if he was being looked at. The words coming out of his mouth in that context would make no sense. What did he tell? Come on, let’s go”? Why would he yell that to the ref?
— All41_1forDirk (@1fordirk) December 13, 2022
Thus, Doncic effectively shut down any defense JB DeRosa could have put up. Thankfully his team won this game despite a horrible call against them. Fans are taking this chance to heavily criticize NBA referees and the state of the league. We hope that DeRosa is an exception and not a standard for league officials moving forward.
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