Reggie Jackson was not a happy person after his Detroit Pistons were swept in the 1st round of the Playoffs by the Cavaliers on Sunday, and rightfully so. Despite the hard-fought effort by the Pistons throughout the majority of all 4 games, the Cavaliers were just the better team. In game 4, Reggie Jackson had the chance to win the game with seconds left on the clock and there was a lot of contact by Kyrie Irving, causing warranted anger by Reggie Jackson and the Pistons. Check out the play on Sunday (CBSSPorts):
Jackson had this to say after the game:
Pistons’ Reggie Jackson: NBA referees should have “system [of] fines, suspensions, being fired” for bad calls pic.twitter.com/v5WuN66dsr
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) April 25, 2016
“I just think refs need to have some type of system in line,” Jackson said. “Fines, suspensions, being fired. Same thing that happens to us. Make bad plays or questionable [calls], you’re not really being productive to the sport and I think you should have consequences just like the players, so that’s about it I got to say on that.”
You can obviously see why Jackson is frustrated because there is a lot of contact on that play, but the NBA confirmed Monday that the referee’s were right. According to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beach Journal:
“…Joe Borgia, the NBA’s senior vice president of replay and referee operations, showed through video why it wasn’t a foul.
“While Kyrie Irving reaches in first, Reggie’s speed, quickness balance and rhythm was not affected, so the contact on that part was incidental and not a foul,” Borgia said. “Following the reach in, Reggie jumps to his left into Kyrie. Since Kyrie was moving away from Reggie at the same time, this contact also was incidental. Therefore, there was no foul on this play.”
Despite the contact the NBA has ruled theirs no foul, and just because of Jackson’s comments he might be the one who ends up getting fined. Either way, the Pistons showed a valiant effort against a more equipped and more talented Cleveland Cavaliers team, despite getting swept, 3 of the games were very close. The Pistons and Reggie Jackson have a lot to look forward to next year.
