NBA league office admits to mistake in first Nuggets-Timberwolves game

Overall, the officiating in the first game between the Nuggets and Timberwolves on Saturday night was solid. It certainly wasn’t a talking point, a deciding factor in the outcome, or anything less than we can reasonably hope for these days.

The refs not being a story is generally a good thing, and truly the best case scenario for the league. Far too often, it seems like officiating becomes a major topic after many big NBA games, sometimes even overshadowing basketball. That said, I think the referees in the first game did a great job.

However, there was one call that immediately made basketball fans of any team roll their eyes and immediately drew the ire of the TNT broadcast team. Late in the third quarter, Anthony Edwards passed Reggie Jackson for a layup. He turned to Jackson and looked down on him as he held up the field on defense.

Edwards was immediately warned for a technical foul by referee Courtney Kirkland. It was a close, physical, back-and-forth NBA playoff game filled with emotion and passion. Nothing Edwards did was out of character, it was an innocent look at the moment. There was no reason for the officials to get involved there, and for a while it put a frustrating damper on a great game.

Technical foul by Anthony Edwards overturned

Well, it turns out the NBA agrees as on Sunday the league office reviewed the play and decided to overturn the technical foul call against Anthony Edwards. Fortunately, this call did not have a major impact on the outcome and both teams progressed fairly quickly. But no one wants to see a series with this much intensity being refereed this way.

So it’s great that the league seems to recognize that and indicate that they’re OK with some real passion for the future. Obviously they don’t want players to exaggerate, be disrespectful or offensive, but that was far from the case. Kudos to the league for making the right judgment here and allowing common sense to prevail. This series could end up being a classic, let’s see it play out on the hardwood.