Austin Reaves caught himself on the receiving end of one of the softest ejections in recent history. This happened during the Los Angeles Lakers’ narrow 97-100 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. Fans were furious at the official who made this call. But for referee Rodney Mott, this was just a regular day at the office.

Officiating over 1000 games, it’s not a big deal if you get a few calls wrong. But, the problem arises when bad officiating becomes the norm. One would say plenty of decisions this season leave a lot to be desired. And fans have consistently labeled Mott as one of the worst referees in the game. So let’s review Rodney Mott’s career and see if he really has earned this notoriety.

Who is Rodney Mott? How long has he called games in the NBA?

Notably, Rodney Mott is an NBA official with 1446 regular season games under his belt. Now that shows, he’s got enough experience in the game of basketball. He’s been in the NBA for the last 25 seasons, and in that time he’s also overseen 55 playoff games. You gotta be the best for a referee to officiate in a playoff game. After a long wait of 15 years, officiating in the NBA, Mott got a call-up to officiate an All-Star game. 

There was also a history for Mott before he made his way to the NBA. He spent four years making calls in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) as another hustle he did. Aside from his CBA and NBA tenures, Rodney worked eight years in the Los Angeles Pro-Am League, which takes place every summer with top players competing for glory.

To the surprise of many, Mott is also a veteran who served in the US Navy for six years. In those 6, three years were active duty while he spent the other 3 in the reserves. He demands some respect for his service to the nation.

We can say he’s got plenty of experience to officiate an NBA game. However, fans remain displeased with some of his decisions.

What are some of Rodney Mott’s worst calls as an NBA official?

Earlier in 2007, when Steve Jobs hadn’t even unveiled the iPhone to the world, in the NBA, the Portland Trail Blazers were playing the Miami Heat. However, that game became memorable for all the wrong reasons. In a rare occurrence, the NBA suspended referee Rodney Mott for making obscene gestures towards fans. Controversy continued to haunt him and this became one of the first incidents in his career. 

This was Mott’s ninth season in the NBA, and you don’t expect someone with so much to mess up like this.

Now, onto the actual terrible calls. One of the most notorious was Mott’s ejection of Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone and center Nikola Jokic in 2017. While fans understood Malone made contact with an official that led to his ejection, they were equally perplexed by Jokic’s ejection. Well, who wasn’t? 

All Jokic was guilty of was asking for a justification for why no foul was called when Kyle Kuzma pushed him down to the floor. After all, a player has the right to ask for a reason. It’s something all players do in sports. This instance highlighted Mott’s incompetency and Nuggets fans called for him to be fired.

But don’t think that stopped Mott from getting on the bad side of another fan favorite. The Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks were going at it in 2020. Late in the game, Mott called a goaltend in the Hawks’ favor, which would decide the game at the end. The kicker? The foul was later rescinded, but the basket still counted for the Hawks. Mark Cuban, then majority owner of the Mavs, did not take it lightly.

“They literally blew the whistle that it was a goaltend. There was a putback after the whistle. After review, they said no goaltend but count the basket? WTF is that? That’s NBA officiating,” said Cuban, irate with Mott’s call.  

Buddy Hield of the Sacramento Kings (now GSW) also found himself lamenting Mott’s officiating. Mott awarded LeBron James two free throws with six seconds left on the clock in a game between the Kings and the Lakers. However, the NBA’s two-minute report revealed the call was incorrect. Hield said, “What do you want us to do? It was a game we should have won, but it just got stolen away from us.” 

This was by no means an exhaustive list of Mott’s awful calls. After all, he’s been officiating for 25 years. However, this shows that Mott’s competency as an NBA official is questionable at best. And the recent Austin Reaves call displays he’s not getting any better two decades into his career.

So what do you think the NBA should do with Rodney Mott? Should they let him go? Or should he stay? Let us know!