A common theme during recent postgame press conferences for New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has been the officiating of NBA referees. Whenever he feels the need, Thibodeau fights for his guys.
He knows better than anyone that not every call will be made during a game. But when he feels like things are getting out of hand or that his Knicks are on the short end of the stick, he’ll let someone know.
During the NBA Playoffs, Thibodeau provided numerous clips and commentary that caught the attention of the basketball world. After Game 2 against the Philadelphia 76ers, when the NBA’s final two-minute report revealed several calls in New York’s favor, Thibodeau responded by asking how the first 46 minutes had been.
In Game 3, there was a lot to discuss after the game. Joel Embiid’s dirty plays have been a major talking point in the basketball world, as he has committed several infractions that could have reached flagrant status.
Officiating was once again Thibodeau’s main talking point. He mentioned Embiid, but it wasn’t about his flagrant acts. Instead, Thibodeau criticized NBA referees for how they define “marginal contact” for his star, Jalen Brunson, compared to Embiid.
“[JB] ended up with 12 FTs. A lot of these have made it to the end… I’ll send my clips like I do for every game… they’ll say ‘marginal contact’. Then we will have marginal contact on Embiid and he will be at the line 21 times. That’s how it works,” Thibodeau said via New York Basketball on X.