Kings’ De’Aaron Fox and Mike Brown call out questionable officiating 

Kings’ coach Mike Brown has criticized referees before. The last time he did it, he brought his laptop to the postgame presser and held a little film session with the reporters in attendance. It was his most memorable and most expensive press conference so far. 

This time around, he didn’t put on quite the same show but still voiced his frustration over the recent officiating against the Kings. 

“I’m not sure why we can’t get a call from an NBA official down the stretch,” he told reporters, unhappy with the last foul on big man Domantas Sabonis and the no-call on De’Aaron Fox’s final turnover that cost the Kings the game. 

He also brought up a wrongly determined possession on an out-of-bounds call and a missed travel against the Oklahoma City Thunder as well as when Colby Jones got hit in the final second of the loss to Boston. The NBA’s last two-minute report confirmed that those were mistakes made by the officials, costing the Kings the games. The jury on last night’s game is still out. 

Brown further said, “It’s just tough when you can’t get a call, but the other team keeps getting calls.”

De’Aaron Fox voiced the same sentiment after the game

De’Aaron Fox was visibly frustrated in his postgame press conference, which is understandable after such a big loss that might very well cost the Kings the playoffs down the stretch. 

When asked about that final play, he told reporters, “He very clearly got me, but when it’s me they always say they didn't see it or marginal contact.” 

Fox is a top-ten scorer in the league and ascended to All-Star territory last season. Nevertheless, he feels that he is not getting the same whistle as some other stars in this league. While that might be true, officiating is not the Kings’ main problem. 

If the Kings took care of business, this would not be as big of a problem

Obviously, it is frustrating if you feel like the officiating is not going your way and even being unfair sometimes, which is often represented in the number of free throw attempts some players get. If the Kings took care of business, the game would not be in the referees’ hands down the stretch, however. 

Against the Thunder, the Kings let go of a big lead. The game should not have been close enough at the end to be decided by the referees and a missed travel. The same goes for last night. Fox and his teammates had several chances to put the game away, but they let another lead slip away and basically gifted a late inbound pass to Bradley Beal when Sabonis tried to force the pass to Fox. 

Sacramento is a small market, and Fox is not as established yet as other star guards in this league. It is true that they do not get the same whistle as other teams, but rather than complaining about the officiating the team should try to not even let it come down to the referees making the correct calls. 

That should be the agenda for the rest of the season.