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NBA referee Kane Fitzgerald has certainly made a name for himself.

He has now become the perfect NBA referee. How is that? Especially after a brutal game one of the conference semifinals between the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies. Simple, he does not need to show any accountability, respectability, credibility, or integrity after ejecting Draymond Green for a flagrant two foul late in the second quarter of game one.

Fitzgerald did get an opportunity to take ownership of his mistake after being interviewed by pool reporters after the game. Did he? No he did not. Instead, he doubled down on his decision by saying “the first part was the wind up and significant contact to the face, and then the pull down from the jersey grab and throw down to the floor to an airborne vulnerable player makes that unnecessary and excessive. That’s what led to the flagrant foul penalty two.”

One question here though was Fitzgerald watching the same replay?

There is absolutely no evidence of Green making significant contact to the face of Brandon Clarke. Yes there was a wind up on the play and there was incidental contact to the top of the head and the jersey did get grabbed.

Though it was blatantly obvious Green was not trying to toss Clarke to the floor, he was like he said “trying to hold him up.”

Worse yet is that the NBA has already refused to rescind the flagrant two to Green. Even though NBA stars on social media are calling the league out for the call. Talk about a tone-deaf response. It illustrates another issue that Adam Silver never addressed after he took over as NBA Commissioner.

The league definitely needs someone to step up, not shrink when it comes to blatantly bad calls. It also did not help Fitzgerald’s case when Stephen Curry in game one got called for an offensive foul, when it was obvious that Dillon Brooks was not set and moved to get in his path. Golden State used the challenge on that play and lost it because the original call of a charge stood.

Also, noteworthy is after Jordan Poole hit a deep three he got hit in the face, yet there was no foul call on the plate, no replay of the call, the defender on the play made significantly more contact to the head area than Green did.

Lastly Fitzgerald’s blew an easy call after Gary Payton crashed the second missed free throw of Klay Thompson. All three referees could not make the call even though it was blatantly obvious that it was off the Grizzlies, giving the Warriors possession of the basketball with a few second remaining in the game.

So NBA glad that the status quo is acceptable. Fitzgerald needs to show some accountability for his terrible performance from yesterday. He can get congratulated by putting his name up there with Joey Crawford and his infamous ejection of Tim Duncan for laughing on the bench.

Sorry Fitzgerald that is not good company to get put in.

 

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