ESPN’s P.J. Carlesimo obliterates NBA refs for ‘disgraceful’ foul call

It might only be the Summer League, but that’s not going to allow ESPN analyst P.J. Carlesimo to give bad officiating a break.

During ESPN’s broadcast of the Summer League game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday night, Carlesimo torched the officiating crew for calling a phantom foul and then upholding it after review.

Even play-by-play voice Drew Carter noted it appeared to be a bit of a “phantom foul “ on Clippers guard Amari Bailey, prompting head coach Dahntay Jones to challenge the call. And while “phantom foul” was assessing the call politely, Carlesimo was a bit more blunt.

P.J. Carlesimo, tell us how you really feel! pic.twitter.com/Za36SV0jzK

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 17, 2024

“I always wasn’t thrilled when the officials look at the replay and then they gotta stand and talk about it here for a while,” Carlesimo griped as the refs took their time on announcing the call. “‘We just looked at the replay…let’s have a meeting and we’ll discuss it.’ I don’t like the discussions.”

As if Carlesimo wasn’t already a little perturbed by the officials lack of urgency, they were about to make matters much worse by announcing the foul call would stand after watching the replay and confirming illegal contact.

“Disgraceful,” Carlesimo ranted. “There was nothing, there was nothing there. Oh I don’t know how he’s even standing after all that contact!” the former college and NBA head coach continued sarcastically. “Are you kidding me? That’s a joke. They looked at the replay and they said there was illegal contact. I think he coughed on him. I didn’t realize in the Summer League you can’t cough on a player. Man. Come on. Please. Three of you can’t look at it and say there was illegal contact!”

Well, you couldn’t cough on a player four years ago, but oh how far we’ve come. NBA officials, however, apparently have not come so far. The bright side of the officials’ occasional ineptitude is that it gives us epic rants like this. Which is especially welcome content in July.

[ESPN]