“F—ing terrible” The two words that Anthony Edwards used to recently criticize the NBA referees, an action for which it didn’t take him long to get fined. Over the last two seasons, criticism of the officiating has reached a new high. Everyone from players to head coaches has highlighted their disappointment in the officials calling out game outcomes in a manner that allegedly favors one team over the others. Therefore, the recent events that involved Victor Wembanyama and Andre Drummond certainly did not help the officials win any brownie points amongst the fan base.

During the ongoing matchup between the San Antonio Spurs and the Philadelphia 76ers, Andre Drummond was ejected from the game. The incident occurred as viewers could see Drummond having his arms around Wemby as some form of a block. The French star slightly tripped, and the whistle blew. Soon after that, however, Wemby fell completely on his back, causing Drummond to receive a potential technical.

After Wemby was ‘pushed’ again a few minutes later, the 76ers star was straight-out ejected from the game. As a result, he was forced to head back to the locker room. However, it didn’t take long for officials to then determine that Victor Wembanyama ‘flopped’, aka fell intentionally. Therefore, Drummond donned his jersey again and soon returned to the court.

All these consecutive events caused fans to react even as the game continued.

How did fans react to the Victor Wembanyama-Andre Drummond referee calls?

One individual wrote, “this is why ratings are down”.

This remark comes weeks after OutKick’s Clay Travis highlighted the league’s declining viewership numbers. In his recent report, which he displayed on X, Travis revealed “NBA ratings are down 48% since 2012. Down 28% this year alone on ESPN. Every other sports league is setting ratings records. Total disaster”. The radio host and analyst is often known to bring political discussions into sports. He has even highlighted the NBA as “Woke sports”. Despite this, no one can deny stats. Even a recent report by ‘The Lead’ listed ‘Controversial Officiating’ as a reason for NBA ratings being down, alongside ‘Bad Promotion’ and ‘Illegal Streaming’.

Another individual took a dig at the league, by writing “NBA created this problem, once they started rewarding players for flopping, everyone started doing it. At this point the WWE is more realistic than the NBA.” Yikes!

‘Flopping’ in the NBA has been an issue for a while. As a result, back in July, the league’s board of governors implemented an in-game penalty system, as part of a one-year trial basis. Under this rule, when a game official calls a flop, the offending player receives a “non-unsportsmanlike technical foul.” The opposing team may receive one free throw attempt, which any player who was in the game when the technical foul was assessed can attempt. As a result, after flopping, officials gave Wemby a technical foul instead. However, after Tyrese Maxey had already shot the technical free throw for Wemby’s penalty, the referees reversed the decision again! Another review determined that Wembanyama had in fact not flopped on the play. The officials took away the free throw. Therefore, no one can blame fans for being upset at how events have been transpiring.

One individual wrote, “this is why NBA sucks now.  2ed year phenom on his way to become a great flopper”.

The NBA drafted Victor Wembanyama back in 2023, and he lived up to several of the expectations that they set for him. Right from the beginning of his rookie season, he broke records previously created by Dwight Howard and other stars, joining the ranks of Tim Duncan and David Robinson on the scoring front, etc. Therefore, the fact that this 7-foot-3 star has started flopping only a season later may not be winning him any additional admiration by the fans.

Even if he didn’t ask for it, Victor Wembanyama’s actions caused Chris Paul to be unintentionally brought into the discussion. One individual did so by writing “Wembenyama already applying what he learned from CP3”, accompanied by a few laughing emojis.

Since he entered the NBA back in 2005, several reports have come about Chris Paul intentionally flopping during games. One of the most memorable incidents took place back in 2013. During a matchup between the LA Clippers and the Sacramento Kings, spectators saw Paul jogging back up the court after Matt Barnes missed a three-pointer. He edged towards an unsuspecting DeMarcus Cousins, and then reportedly flailed his body “wildly without even being touched”. By 2023, Pau’s continued flopping incidents even caused Steve Kerr to speak out. He stated that the NBA should adopt FIBA-type rules to eliminate the thing.

One commenter highlighted his ‘surprise’ towards the officials’ actions. He/she wrote “Refs are actually correcting their mistakes”, accompanied by a ‘thinking face’ emoji. Well, maybe the continued criticism may have affected them.

Overall, the majority of reactions were united in their criticism of the on-court officials, and Victor Wembanyama. Despite all the controversy that took place, the Philadelphia 76ers managed to win the game by a 111-106 score. Whether more such incidents will reappear in the future is something that remains to be seen.