The Game Inside the Game: How NBA Players Work the Refs

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

NBA officials are human beings (at least for now)...and they are emotional beings, just like the NBA players they share the court with. So it’s no surprise when you see tempers flare in the heat of the moment between the two parties. And despite the contentious interactions we sometimes see on the court, players and officials often do end up forming relationships. And like any relationship, there are ups and downs. So today, Tim Macmahon takes us inside the game within the game, as NBA players try to win over the referees…and whether or not it actually works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, I'm George Sedano, a name you might recognize from crushing the competition
0:08.4	on around the horn, and a voice you might recognize from ESPN Radio and Los Angeles.
0:13.8	Fun fact though, I also got Spurs head coach Greg Popovitz to smile once during a
0:18.7	sideline interview.
0:20.7	So you're going to be hearing different voices hosting ESPN Daily in the coming weeks,
0:24.9	and I'm one of them, helping this podcast do what it's always done.
0:29.2	Well, the best sports stories in audio, day in and day out.
0:33.7	Thanks for listening.
0:36.2	Tim McMan, you wrote a story about what we like to call the dark arts in the NBA, which
0:48.1	is players trying to lobby officials.
0:51.3	What made you want to write this story?
0:53.3	I was covering the Bucks game in Dallas this year, and I think this was in December.
0:59.7	And I thought Yannis was honestly not getting a good whistle that night.
1:07.6	I thought there were several times where he was getting hammered.
1:16.5	He gave some looks to Rass and he kind of like purses lips, but he didn't complain the
1:27.4	whole night.
1:28.7	I asked him about it after the game, and he gave this long answer.
1:34.1	What I've worked for me in Macarere is trying not to argue, try to stay in my zone and control
1:40.3	what I can control.
1:43.1	I'm not going to get into arguing with the referees.
1:45.7	Those guys have hard jobs.
1:47.4	They're humans, they're not robots, I respect what they do.
	...

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