When the NBA released the L2M report from the Warriors’ Christmas day game against the Cavaliers, Kevin Durant could have used it to blame the referees for his team’s loss. The report showed that the refs had missed two critical calls: a technical foul on LeBron James for hanging on the rim so long it seemed like he was trying to pull it right off the backboard, and a foul on Richard Jefferson for stepping on Kevin Durant’s foot on the game’s deciding possession. Durant didn’t blame the refs, though. Instead, he admitted that the Warriors – who had a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter – shouldn’t have been in any position to let a missed call or two lose them the game in the first place. Durant called the L2M reports “bullshit” and said that the NBA is throwing the refs under the bus.
It turns out that Kevin Durant is not the only superstar who detests L2M reports. LeBron James agrees, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:
“I’m not a fan of the two-minute report,” James said after the Cavs practiced on Wednesday. “I think it discredits what the referees are doing for 48 minutes. If that’s the case, you might as well do a 48-minute report.
“It’s not fair to the referees that you only talk about the final two minutes of the game and not the first 46. There’s plays that’s missed, there’s plays that called throughout 48 minutes that don’t get talked about.”
James and Durant both make valid points. The L2M reports don’t really accomplish anything aside from giving fans a reason to feel validated in their complaints and disparaging the reputations of refs.
