Sports

Chris Paul’s Comments On Female Referee Ignite Feminist Outrage

Christian Datoc Senior White House Correspondent
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The Cleveland Cavaliers extended their win streak to 12 games after dispatching the Los Angeles Clippers, 105-94, on Thursday night.

Cleveland jumped out to an early 1st-quarter lead, and 24 points from Kevin Love coupled with 23 from King James proved too much for the Clippers to overcome. However, this game caught headlines for a totally different reason.

The Clippers are known throughout the league as an extremely emotional team and their 58 technical fouls leads the league this season. Still, Lob City’s FIVE techs on Thursday is by far the most they’ve received in one game.

The first was called against Doc Rivers in the first quarter, yet the remaining 4 all came in the third — including three in a 52-second span — and were called by Lauren Holtkamp, one of two female referees in the NBA. Holtkamp has past experience officiating in the NBA Development League and the WNBA, but this is her first season calling games in the NBA.

Following the game, Chris Paul and several other Clippers players told the media that the technical fouls were not responsible for the loss — L.A. only shot 22-percent from the beyond the arc — yet they still felt Holtkamp had overstepped her authority.

I think we have to show better composure, but at the same time some of [the technical fouls] were ridiculous. The tech that I get right there was ridiculous. I don’t care what nobody says, I don’t care what she says; that’s terrible. There’s no way that can be a tech. We try to get the ball out fast every time down the court, and when we did that, she said, ‘Uh-uh.’ I said, ‘Why, uh-uh?’ And she gave me a tech.

That’s ridiculous. If that’s the case, this might not be for her.

Based on the video of Holtkamp’s calls, Paul’s comments were not out of line. Additionally, the Clippers made a point of telling the media, “their displeasure had nothing to do with Holtkamp’s gender and everything to do with the calls she made on the court.” Still, ESPN’s Keri Potts took to Twitter to blast the all-star point guard.

In case you were wondering, this isn’t Potts’ first time playing the feminist card. She got her break from her “How I Escaped My Rapist” article for Marie Claire. I don’t mean to make light of sexual assault, but in this case, I’m pretty sure Ms. Potts’ allegations of sexism are a little over the top.

Haters gonna hate.

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