Nikola Jokic and Denver Nuggets vs. Chicago Bulls Credit: NBC Sports Chicago
By Sean Keeley on

The Chicago Bulls wisely decided to celebrate Serbian Heritage Night on Tuesday when the Denver Nuggets and two-time MVP Nikola Jokić were in town.

The referees were not overly concerned about sending the crowd home happy.

The defending champion Nuggets led the Bulls 54-47 with a little over a minute to play in the first half when Jokić, upset with the lack of a call after a drive to the hoop, let one of the referees know his displeasure (allegedly saying “call the foul, mother******.” After the ensuing play ended, the refs blew the whistle, assessed him with a technical foul, and then ejected the Serbian superstar from the game.

You could imagine the reaction had this happened in Denver, but even here in Chicago, everyone was furious with the overblown reaction. The Chicago crowd showered boos on the referees. Even the Bulls announcers, Adam Amin and Stacey King, were incensed.

“I saw the official point as if he was ejecting Jokić from the game,” said Amin. “That can’t be right, can it? Did he get ejected from the game?”

“That’s terrible,” said King.

“That doesn’t seem fair at all,” added Amin.

“Give the guy a tech. He shoulda got a foul. But to eject the guy, c’mon now,” said King. “The people didn’t come to see the officials. Let’s be honest, they came to see the players. He’s one of the players they came to see. Give him a tech, he earned that. He’s a two-time MVP. He earned the right to be able to communicate.”

On the replay, King even noted that Jokić “may have had a point” on the lack of a foul call.

It’s exceedingly rare to hear the announcers for the opposing team admonish the referees for kicking a team’s best player out of the game. But it says something about the way so many fans, and announcers, are fed up with inconsistent and unaccountable referees, that seemingly no one involved in this game wanted to see this go down the way it did.

It’s especially a bummer for all of the people who specifically came to support Jokic on his only visit to the United Center this season.

[AA on Twitter, NBC Sports Chicago]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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