‘Sleepless Nights’: Referees Admit They Blew Last-Second No-Call On Huge LeBron Play

Any drama that has LeBron James involved is massively amplified, and here we go again.

The chaos surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers’ Jan. 28 125-121 overtime defeat to the Boston Celtics continues, as the National Basketball Referees Association has released a statement on their official Twitter.

After the game, Eric Lewis — who was the crew chief of the Lakers-Celtics game — stated that the referees did, in fact, miss the shooting foul that Jayson Tatum committed against LeBron James’ last-second layup attempt. If the foul was called, LeBron would have gone to the line with a chance to win the game for Los Angeles with things being tied up, 105-105.

“We got cheated tonight, honestly,” Lakers forward Anthony Davis told reporters after the game. “It’s unacceptable.”

Here is the National Basketball Referees Association’s statement on the matter:

Like everyone else, referees make mistakes. We made one at the end of last night’s game and that is gut-wrenching for us. This play will weigh heavily and cause sleepless nights as we strive to be the best referees we can be.https://t.co/WyN8QVuTOl

— NBA Referees (@OfficialNBARefs) January 29, 2023

Here is the play just so we can take another look at this thing:

LeBron and the Lakers got screwed — massively. I think we can all agree on that one.

But would terms like “gut-wrenching” and “sleepless nights” be used if LeBron wasn’t involved?

Holy crap, Skip Bayless was just complaining about Steph Curry being the most protected in the NBA, and at the time, I completely disagreed with him, and now I’m being proven right with flying colors. Sure, LeBron got a bad no-call on that play, but to have your referees association using terms like “sleepless nights”? What the (bleep) is that? (RELATED: 76ers’ Joel Embiid Makes Wild Gesture During Celebration. Nets’ Kevin Durant Talks Trash From Home)

It’s always gotta be a big drama with LeBron, man. That crap is annoying.