There was quite a bit of controversy at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento over the weekend. If you somehow didn’t already see, Kanye West pissed a lot of people off on Saturday night when he walked out of a concert at the brand-new arena after performing just a few songs. Kanye fans spent Sunday demanding refunds from Ticketmaster after the very brief performance. And on Sunday night, Sacramento Kings fans witnessed a controversy of their own at the Golden 1 Center courtesy of a call that was made late in their team’s game against the Toronto Raptors.
With the Raptors trailing the Kings 102-99 with just 2.4 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Toronto inbounded the ball and Terrence Ross hit what appeared to be a game-tying 3-pointer as time expired:
However, upon further review, the game’s referees ruled that the shot did not count because DeMarcus Cousins tipped the ball on the inbounds pass, which should have started the clock. The refs determined that, if the clock had started after Cousins tipped the ball, Ross would not have gotten his shot off on time. So they waved the shot off and gave the Kings their fifth win of the 2016-17 NBA season.
Toronto fans were obviously irate:
The Raptors players and coaches were, too. Toronto coach Dwane Casey yelled at the game’s referees and slammed his clipboard before leaving the court:
Kyle Lowry refused to talk about the call made on the final play of the game and hit a reporter with three consecutive "no comments" during a post-game interview:
Patrick Patterson teed off on the NBA on Twitter:
And while Ross himself stopped short of blaming the refs for the Raptors' loss, he sounded confused by how everything played out:
As Patterson mentioned, the Raptors will likely appeal the call made on the final play of the game. But crew chief Mike Callahan spoke with Washington Post reporter Tim Bontemps after the contest and explained why he believes the refs ultimately made the right call:
What a weekend in Sactown.
