https://twitter.com/BrianTRobb/status/1124510807881080832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1124510807881080832&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fboston-celtics
Brad Stevens: "I don't complain about officials. We have a lot of things we have to work on."
Lol and there you have it. Dude is too soft to be a winning coach in the playoffs when it comes down to it. Virtually every other coach lobbies for their team, especially in the playoffs, sometimes even when they're not getting a noticeably bad whistle. But, no, not Brad; he's too principled (read: "soft") for that.
This is simply part of the game, especially in the playoffs, and he's not advocating for his team like he needs to by refusing to do this. #soft
JP, I think part of it is that it's a lot easier to complain about officiating as a fan. As a player/coach who is actually participating in the game, publicly complaining about officiating looks like sour grapes, particularly when others will point out that there were plenty of things you could have done better that was under your control. I think Brad also doesn't want the team to fall into the "we wuz robbed" mentality where they don't look at their own failings first before worrying about the failings of those appointed to control the game. Control what you can control has always been his philosophy.
Kyrie was also asked about it by the media, one guy from WEEI I think prefaced his question by "have you ever played in a game where the officiating was so one sided", Kyrie tried a couple of times to be diplomatic and say that officials have a tough job, that he doesn't want to complain about them, they have to look at the things that they can do better, etc, but the third time he got asked he told them what he really thought:
https://twitter.com/BenGolliver/status/1124516847653617664
So he said it and now it's big news. I just don't see how it's going to get the refs to change how they call the game. The absolute worst thing that can happen is they get frustrated, then they either commit even dumber fouls or get T'd up or it takes them out of their game. They have to go in expecting they're going to get bad calls and just incorporate them into the game plan.
It's all about perception, Oz. That's how you play the game. Officiating is already clearly oriented toward stars, so the league and officials are going to be sensitive to that. You strategically mention this stuff to keep the attention on it and make sure that the refs and league are cognizant of the officiating perception so that you avoid that blatantly biased third quarter situation like we had tonight.
But that should mainly be on the coach, not the players. There are ways to do that without coming off like Daryl Morey and the Rockets, but the fact that Stevens refuses to even consider doing that, putting it onto his players, just highlights his significant shortcomings as a coach and his refusal to consider anything outside of his preconceived gameplan/philosophy, which is pretty much the root cause of many of his shortcomings.
It's literally just part of the game, and every other coach does this. Stevens should be doing it, too, regardless of how uncomfortable it is for him.
Topic: Bucks (1-1) at Celtics (1-1) Round 2 Game 3 5/3/19 (Read 71847 times)