Jason Smith and Mike Harmon discuss why the refs should not have thrown out Luka Doncic because it robbed the fans of what could have been a wire-to-wire game at the end. They also discuss why a review of an ejection should be implemented in the modern NBA, especially with star players already sitting out many primetime games.
Jason Smith:
"This is ridiculous. If you're going to make a big deal if you're the NBA about players playing in nationally televised games. Big deal to make the stars play right? If you are going to throw a star player out, you got to make damn sure there's a reason for it. You can't be be an official with rabbit ears that says "oh I think you were talking to me." Hang on. I understand blowing the whistle. I understand if Luka says something and you think it's you. I understand blowing the whistle, but you got to be able to stop and the officials have to stop and say, okay, you realize you just threw Luka Doncic out of this game. Let's understand that we did it and we can stand on it and that it's something that was okay. Lets go back to video. Talk to me about what he said. What did you hear him say? Luka what did you say? And you figure it out from there."
Mike Harmon:
"It's a quick whistle right? So you get the first one. Fine. Big difference between all right you get your first technical and yes you can have the accumulation and get a suspension. In this case I want to know what the magic word was for one. But to your point right? It's something that maybe the league needs to address as to, hey, we need to have a different review process before we eject a guy. We certainly do if there's any kind of physical contact right? we're doing the flagrant one, flagrant two. Lets go to the Zapruder film and lock down frame by frame to figure out what was the intent. If you're 100% sure that you can't be misconstrued in your words that it was directed to a fan that you were jawing with, then we need to be able to adjudicate that. But in this case it goes against the Lakers and they get run out of the gym."