In What Serves As Proof That He Can Do No Right In The Eyes Of The Officials, Boogie Cousins Got T'd Up For Looking Out For The Safety Of His Peers

Boogie tosses Jeremy Lamb’s shoe into the stands, gets T’d up. pic.twitter.com/MAW1V6S2wj

— TheWarriorsTalk (@TheWarriorsTalk) February 26, 2019

It's like ten thousand rules when all you need is common sense, and isn't it ironic? Don't ya think?

It's actually amazing. The thing that officials, whether they be babysitting six year olds or presiding over professional athletes, struggle with the most is situational awareness. They can mesmerize every intricate stipulation in the most exhausting of handbooks, but when it comes to reading a room they are basically illiterate.  

I'm fully aware it's not an easy job to have to trust your eyes in making split second decisions about the legality of the physicality between some of the biggest, strongest, and fastest athletes on the planet. However, a referee being unable to comprehend what DeMarcus Cousins was doing by tossing an errant sneaker from an area of the floor in which it would have served as nothing more than a man-child's hilariously unorthodox attempt to form a connection with his illegal adoptee is the most glaring example of their counterproductive command of avoiding criticism...

I say the following with an understanding that jobs don't get more thankless than officiating at the NBA level. When in doubt, referees should default to the decision that's the least likely to get them yelled at, just like almost every other employee on the planet. That's certainly not a perfect system, especially when Boogie is on the court, but it's one that should aide the flow of play and offer their PR team a helping hand in making those that police the game seem somewhat pragmatic. 

Obviously there's a reason that players are supposed to be punished for throwing things in the crowd, but there's also a reason that those with the whistles are given the creative license of "human error" in determining whether to blow them or not. That reason couldn't be highlighted more by the most inhuman of error, which was a failure to see the difference between calmly removing a clear and present danger from the most inhabited area on the court and psychotically booting a basketball to the back row of the building.

We're not talking about doing something super-duper hard like counting the steps and actually calling a 12-step travel. We're talking about a ref having more than enough time to absorb context clues before firing synapses annnd aimlessly shooting himself right in his own foot. I know a lot goes into being a professional official, but that's not an excuse for not putting some brain power towards being a rational person.

Demarcus Cousins was not happy after getting a tech late in the 4th quarter for throwing a shoe off the court. pic.twitter.com/hEF5zVBANu

— ESPN (@espn) February 26, 2019