Referee deflects ball back to Indiana Pacers player (GIF)
By Josh Hill
NBA fans tend to love their conspiracy theories and one of the most common theories is that the referees are playing favorites on the court. Their cause isn’t helped by the whole gambling scandal that rocked the NBA back in the early 2000s, but since then they’ve sort of earned the benefit of the doubt again.
But for fans who think the referees favor the Miami Heat in every matchup they ever play in, tonight’s Heat-Pacers game is the game for you. It doesn’t take much to get the conspiracy theorists all hot and bothered enough to throw their bag of stale Cheetos across the entire length of their
basement
bomb shelter, but when a referee gets in the way of a ball, the masses rise.
The play looked to be inadvertent and the Pacers still scored on the play, but the referee did sort of alter things a bit. He didn’t do it in the Heat’s favor though so we suppose all is good. But if this shows us anything, it’s that no one is safe in this matchup, especially not the referees.