Thunder’s Paul George Voices Concerns Over NBA Officials

Fresh off an overtime victory of the Blazers, the Thunder fell to the Clippers on Friday. For the second night in a row, Oklahoma City was once again on the wrong end of a double-digit free throw margin. After 28 minutes of action, Paul George exited the game with his sixth personal foul. Upset with how the contest was officiated, George vented after the action had concluded.

ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk captured Paul’s comments after the Thunder’s loss.

“It’s just bad officiating,” George said. “I’m sorry, just bad officiating. We don’t get a fair whistle. We haven’t gotten a fair whistle all year. ... Somebody’s got to look into this. It’s getting out of hand, where we somehow just walk teams to the line. And there’s nobody that gets more contact. If I don’t speak for myself, I speak for Russ. There’s nobody that gets more contact than Russ going to the basket. And it’s just crazy.”

George went on to explain that this issue deserves the attention of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

“I come out here and I do my job, and that’s to play and be a professional,” George said. “I don’t know if it’s Adam Silver that’s got to [look into] this. We expect the officiating to be professional as well.”

This outcry should raise eyebrows in Portland after George went unpunished for unleashing an elbow to the face of Jusuf Nurkic on Thursday. The NBA’s L2M Report from the game listed the transgression as one of the several calls that were missed at the conclusion of the heated affair between division rivals.

Update: George was fined $25,000 by the NBA for his comments.