The NBA’s clear bias against the Memphis Grizzlies is not going unnoticed
The officiating was clearly in favor of the Utah Jazz. Jazz fans will deny it, but fans of every other NBA team will agree. Heck, Shaquille O’Neill agreed when he stated during halftime that Utah was getting some “home cooking.” Kendrick Perkins, who has been extremely high on the Jazz was actively complaining about the officiating during the game. Here is one tweet in particular:
I guess the Refs didn’t see when Rudy hit Jonas in the damn face in the First Half huh?
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) May 27, 2021
The poor officiating was highlighted in a moment where a technical foul was called on Jonas Valanciunas who did… nothing. No, that’s not me being a biased Grizzlies fan, there was absolutely nothing done by JV to warrant a technical.
This isn’t one of those situations where we can’t see what was going on, either. Valanciunas simply got called for a technical foul for no reason whatsoever. There was an angle of his face — his mouth didn’t move. There were no words muttered quietly to an official.
It was another foul that caused Valanciunas to sit on the bench — an area that he and Dillon Brooks would have to get comfortable in for a majority of the first half in foul trouble. The Grizzlies suffered as a result.