Shaquille O’Neal NSFW rant blaming referees for NBA losing money surfaces after Luka Doncic ejection

Superstar Luka Doncic was ejected during the Los Angeles Lakers' second road game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Shaquille O’Neal NSFW rant blaming referees for NBA losing money surfaces after Luka Doncic ejection

Luka Doncic and Los Angeles Lakers great Shaquille O'Neal

The Los Angeles Lakers went into Paycom Center to continue where they had left off two nights ago. Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves along with their bench had execute a similar gameplan as last time. They did just that up until 7:50 seconds in the fourth quarter.

Their third quarter rally helped them tie the score and even take the lead. Then all that mattered was that they stuck to their plan, and they could have ended with a second consecutive win over the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder.

YouTube video

That is until referee JT Orr felt as if Doncic had said something to him and proceeded to issue a technical foul. Just that it was the Slovenian’s second, which meant, he had to leave the game. Doncic and the Lakers pleaded that the 25-year-old was jawing with a fan, but Orr did not want to review.

This flipped the game on its head and then onwards, the Oklahoma City Thunder ran away to a commanding lead to end up winning the game 136-120. Fans felt that technical foul took the life out of the game and one of them dug the internet to find a 20-year-old video of Shaquille O’Neal calling out officiating.

David Stern, you wondering why the league is losing money, that’s why. People pay good money to come and watch these athletes play and they (referees) try to take over the f***ing game.

Shaquille O’Neal said

This video reveals how the Diesel felt about officiating two decades ago. He believed if there is anything that was taking the fun out of the game then, it was the officials, who believed they needed to enforce their rules. Now, basketball fans along with the person interviewing Shaquille O’Neal in that video feel the same.

Los Angeles radio commentator loses his mind over Luka Doncic ejection

The person interviewing Shaquille O’Neal on the court was John Ireland. Now Ireland is a play-by-play commentator for the Los Angeles Lakers’ radio broadcast. When he saw what transpired, the 67-year-old was livid.

This is an absolutely horrible decision by JT Orr. You cannot throw a star player out of an NBA game to talking to a fan. This is one of the worst pieces of officiating I have ever seen, and I’ve done this for 25 years. I hate this call, and I would say the same thing if they were doing it to Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander).

John Ireland said

Ireland went on to say that JT Orr’s ego was on full display since he was not willing to review the call despite Lakers players telling him what went down. He believes the official in this case was trying to be the big star for the city of Oklahoma.

Can the NBA overturn this technical foul?

In instances like this, the Los Angeles Lakers top brass will send footage with evidence to the league office. This season, the only questionable situations have come about when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was awarded too many free throws.

Other than that, the officiating has been better than previous years. If the Lakers can make their point, the league could overturn the technical foul. They could also pass on the judgement to the referee’s union so that they can avoid any such mistakes in the future.

However, the NBA cannot overturn the game. The result is a culmination of how a team plays the game. This means, the Lakers will have to accept the loss and move on. Luka Doncic‘s teammates were visibly upset with this decision. With the playoffs around the corner, the Lakers could use this as motivation.