Head coach Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks was frustrated after the narrow defeat against the Houston Rockets on Saturday and complained about his referees and critics, whom he questioned from the start.
Kidd was called for a foul after Cooper Flagg missed a layup that would have tied the game with 25 seconds left. “I saw a foul,” Kidd clarified afterwards, before naming the referees: “Sean, Simone and Jason were terrible today. The referees were unacceptable. It’s a foul and he has to go to the free throw line. Whether he does both is up to the player. But the referees have to do their job. They were terrible.”
Flagg scored 34 points on 13/25 from the field after exploding with 49 points against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday. Flagg hit 11/17 shots in the zone against the Rockets. “He figured out how to do it,” praised Kevin Durant: “He understood that he was hard to stop.”
Flagg also recorded 12 rebounds and 5 assists. “I definitely felt contact. But at the end of the day the referees blow the whistle. It is what it is. But it’s hard,” said Flagg: “You just have to keep playing. It’s part of the game. It’s not the first time in my life that I haven’t gotten a whistle, and it probably won’t be the last time. Whatever it is, you have to keep playing.”
NBA: Kidd fires at critics
For Kidd, the frustration with the referee issue wasn’t over yet, he reacted angrily to another point. He was asked what he thought of the widespread criticism when he let Flagg play point guard and the rookie struggled in his first NBA appearances.
“Criticism? That’s your opinion? You write this shit,” Kidd replied: “I did this, I played the game. I played. I know what I’m fucking doing. I don’t give a damn about what you guys write because you’ve never played the game. I build players, I fucking know what I’m doing. Taking criticism only makes me better. If I wasn’t doing my job right, you wouldn’t be criticizing it.”
