Jayson Tatum had some grievances to air out after Sunday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, and it was hard to blame him for doing so.
The Boston Celtics star Tatum suffered an ankle tweak in the second half when Bucks counterpart Giannis Antetokounmpo stepped into his landing space on a closeout. Tatum was attempting a three-point jumper from the left corner and ended up coming down on Antetokounmpo’s foot, visibly turning his left ankle as a result.
Here is the clip.
Tatum rolls his ankle on this Giannis close outpic.twitter.com/huONoew2t7
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) November 10, 2024
The NBA has made it a point of emphasis over the last few years to protect jump-shooters from defenders walking underneath them and causing an injury upon landing. Thus, that play should have been called as a flagrant foul on Antetokounmpo, giving Boston free throws and possession. Instead though, there was no whistle whatsoever, despite at least one referee (No. 9, Natalie Sago) being right on the baseline looking at the action.
The Celtics would go on to win the game 113-107. But an unhappy Tatum sounded off on the missed call in a post to his X page afterwards.
“Smfh,” Tatum wrote along with a facepalm emoji as he posted the video clip. “some calls you just not supposed to miss.”
Smfh some calls you just not supposed to miss https://t.co/uWif2opDef
— Jayson Tatum (@jaytatum0) November 11, 2024
Tatum gutted through the injury and did not have to leave the game at all, finishing with 31 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists (all team highs). But he was right about that being an egregious miss by the refs on a dangerous play that the league has made a devoted effort to officiate out of the game. While NBA referees usually do get that call right, you would think that Tatum was Caitlin Clark there with how badly that landing space call was missed.
