Shakeia Taylor
Appearances
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
He doesn't think so, and neither do his teammates. Actually, after the game, Rick Carlisle, Coach Rick Carlisle, was asked about the athletics player poll. And in addition to being very fiery about it, he called it, Shameful, actually, he demanded to see the faces of the players who said that about his star. It was a very impassioned response from a coach who clearly backs his guy.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
Tyrese also addressed the overrated votes. By saying he's just going to be himself. He, you know, he said he doesn't he doesn't give I'll say a damn about what anyone thinks of him. And, you know, he understands that, you know, people may not like what he's doing or who he is, but he's going to continue to be himself. And Pascal Siakam came in and supported that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
You know, he said he's he backs everyone back their guy here. So if he's overrated, people in Indiana do not agree.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
Tyrese Halliburton continues to reiterate that they don't like each other. He said it before this series began. He said it tonight after the game. They don't like each other. There's probably a little bit of like game respects game, of course, but they don't like each other. And it was obvious all the way down both benches.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
I would say in game one, but especially tonight, you know, there was a dust up on the court. The players were hyping up the crowd who were really in support of the beef. I actually turned to someone sitting by me and I was like, hey, this crowd wants the smoke. Like they were chanting, you know, Bobby sucks. Even if Bobby Portis wasn't touching the ball. It's a nice change.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
After practice on Monday, I wrote how this team isn't a team that relies on one player to sort of be the star to carry the team. Right. Obviously, Halliburton is the guy, but they have a balanced scoring attack. They support each other. There is a real effort from everyone on the team to go out there and, you know, shut things down. Nimhard.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
I can't even, I mean, he had a slump going into the end of the regular season. In the postseason, he got activated, right? He's playing well on both sides of the court. He's putting the clamps on Damian Lillard, who people expected to come out tonight and light it up. There was a real expectation, you know, because with Lillard on the court, he kind of opens up Milwaukee's offense.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
He changes their ability to have spacing on the court. And none of that happened. In fact, I don't know if you guys even noticed, he only had 11 points well into the second half of the game. His three-pointer very late in the game came when Milwaukee was trying to fight their way back. But by then, the Pacers were like, it's too late.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
They're going to have to slow Indiana down. Indiana's plan of attack from the beginning has been we are young and we are fast and we're just going to fly around the court. And that's exactly what they've been doing. They've been getting up and down the court really fast. And it makes sense. Milwaukee look tired, which is absolutely Rick Carlisle and his team's game plan. Tire them out.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
Tyrese Halliburton talked about the wear down effect. They are fully aware that that is the way to get the bucks to show weakness. Like they know there's no really stopping someone like Giannis. But what you do is if you slow everyone else down, or I should say, keep them you know, sped up and keep them from scoring well, that's, that's going to be the plan.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
So I guess Milwaukee has to figure out how do we slow this team down, but also how do we keep you? Cause you got six guys you have to keep out of double figures, right? Indiana has consistently had six guys in double figures this series. So I don't really know how you get six people, you know, to all be, to all have a bad night at once, but that's gotta be the goal.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
In the beginning, I really was like, okay, this is gonna be, this is gonna go six or seven. They're gonna stretch this out. Giannis is gonna wanna, you know, want to fight because he didn't play, you know, last year's playoffs. This is gonna be a huge deal. But after tonight, I don't know that six or seven is is going to be the number of games in this series.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
If the Pacers continue to come out and just attack them and send a crowd the way they've been doing. Right. Like they know all they have to do is send two and three. And guys are switching off and making sure that Giannis. even though he's going to score, he's got to fight for it, right?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
He's got to put his shoulder down, and he's having to dig into multiple guys just to even get the shots he's getting. So defensively, Indiana has been, from everything I've heard in the time I've been here and been around the team, they're sticking to the plan, and they haven't kept it a secret. As far as Lillard goes, Doc Rivers said pregame he didn't even know what to expect
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
from Lillard in, you know, the Tuesday night game. So I'm assuming, you know, because Lillard really didn't have a ton of time to get ready for this game. Yeah. That on Friday, we'll see a completely different performance from him because he'll have had more time to, you know, get his legs and get in some practice time.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka and the Lakers get physical | Are the Bucks finished?
And, you know, tonight will probably be a big recovery night for him considering, you know, what he just experienced with the diagnosis.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
And something that I thought was interesting that I'm sure you all will too, is most officials are former athletes and they're getting in five miles per game, running up and down the court with elite athletes, five miles per game.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
Absolutely. It's even in my lead. I mentioned that like with the proliferation of gambling, referees are, they're under threat. Something that James Williams said in our conversation was social media is not a safe place for an official. In fact,
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
early in his career, which obviously was in the pre, you know, boom of social media, but he remembers just feeling so horrible about a call in a game and the things that were said to him that he started wanting to work harder and wanting to be better and wanting to make fewer mistakes. Unfortunately, that's not how it goes for a lot of people. You get berated and
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
one time too many you get cursed out you get your life threatened one time too many and you're like i'm out of here i'm not doing this and on the lower levels they're getting it from parents right like parents think they know the game parents and i'm not saying parents don't know the game but you you all know what i'm getting they don't no they don't no i'll say it they don't yeah i used to tell them that uh when i coached high school i used to tell them that at the beginning of the year
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
So go ahead. But that's what they experience, right? They experience exactly what you and other coaches experience is parents telling them how to do their jobs. So imagine it when you're at the NBA level, you got thousands of people watching on TV, live streams. on social media, in the arena. And one mistake, you already have the weight of this could impact the game.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
This could impact the outcome of the game. You know, this could impact player relationships. But then you have this idea that I could be threatened and harmed, you know, after this. And so James talked about like wanting to not only teach the basics of how to do this job, but how to steel yourself out
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
to be able to sort of handle all of the outside noise and getting access to him to go back to your earlier questions, you know, was I really had to ask the MBA, uh, for permission to speak to him. Um, And I explained what the story was about. And, you know, he had to get clearance as well. It was a it was a process.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
It wasn't something that I was able to just sort of call him up and say, hey, can we talk about this? It was a it was a process. And in that process, I learned so much. I actually have a greater respect for people who opt into being an official because it is a service job and people in service jobs do not get thanked.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
So the rule book, the NBA rule book is 75 pages, right? So this is 75 pages of rules that all of these referees have to know. So you have to learn this, but they have no participation in the making of the rules. The way James explained it is the rules are made by lawyers, right? So it is not someone who is on the court looking at a game in flow.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
It is made by someone who is just saying this is what we don't want in the game. Right. These are the things that we don't want to happen. So not only do you not help create the rules, but you have to have the mind to store that. how many rules are on 75 pages y'all? Like they've gotta be, it's gotta be a ton.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
There's gotta be a ton of them. So your, so your, your body has to be able to run five miles a game. You gotta be able to keep your feet in position. You gotta sequence your eyes. You gotta follow the play and you gotta run through a 75 page rule book as this is happening, right?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
This is a mentally and physically taxing role on the court that we mostly don't pay attention to until something happens. Right. I just thought that was really fascinating that there is no participation from officials in court. What is, you know, the part of officiating that matters? The rules.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
Absolutely. Something that came up a lot in my conversations because I didn't just talk to James. Right. I talked to Monty McCutcheon of the NBA. I talked to other people at Refmasters and I talked to someone who is using Refmasters to sort of help improve herself as a referee. And what I thought was interesting was everyone mentioned up, down, rebound.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
So now whenever I'm watching a game, I'm looking at up, down, rebound. Right. Because I want to see what they're seeing. That's not something that I really as a normal watcher, you know, I'm like paying super close attention to. But they talk about how like what they're watching, where they have to be standing, the way their bodies have to be positioned. for that one thing.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
That's not including everything else.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
I feel like I would not give a good explanation for that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
So as it was explained to me, when a player goes up, right, for the rebound, you're watching not only their hands, but you're watching their feet and you have to watch everyone around them. Right. So you can't just watch the ball. So your eyes have to go. I'm sorry. I'm using my hands as if people can see me on YouTube.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
So so your eyes have to go up, down, back to the ball incredibly quickly because you have to have this sequence of events. in your mind with your eyes. So you can make the correct call, whether this person is touched, whether there's, you know, someone sticks a hand out or whatever. And now that I've heard that I start looking, you never realize how many hands are going toward the ball.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
So you're watching who's got the ball. You're watching for possession. You're watching for who taps it. You're watching for the slightest alteration of the movement of the the ball and it happens in seconds.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
Thank you. I'm very excited to be here. Thank you for reading the piece as well.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
I couldn't answer any questions as to why the NBA isn't doing it, but I know that, you know, this program, this app was created by two NBA referees and they got the idea in the bubble.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
I tried to kind of push as to like what in the bubble made that, you know, a thought considering there weren't fans there to go at them the way they are now, but they had the idea in the bubble and it was James Williams, who people call Gucci and Kane Fitzgerald, who is now in Secaucus at the main, you know, officiating center for the NBA. And their idea was, Hey,
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
We need constant and consistent and updated training. We don't write the rules. We're not a part of the rules making process, but it's our job to litigate them, so to speak. And this whole idea is getting people properly trained on positioning and sequencing and how to use your eyes to make better calls.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
Well, I have to start by telling you where I found out about Ref Masters. I found out about it in the most unconventional way, which is typically how I get a lot of ideas, to be honest, just random conversations. But I went to a women in sports panel at a Soho house here in Chicago, and the woman sitting next to me happened to be the executive vice president of Ref Masters.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
And we got to chatting, you know, how you are when you're in a social context and we're just chatting and she gives me her card. I give her my card and we're talking about what they do. And I found it incredibly interesting, not only as a writer who attends tons of games and I've been, you know, to every sport on a professional level, I've covered to a certain degree.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
And there's always a complaint about officiating, no matter the level, no matter the league. And so the fact that these people saw a need and said, OK, how can we impact this? And some of the big parts of officiating is data. I don't think the average fan considers that it's data. How much is this happening? How often are we making this call? Where are we standing when we're making this call?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
What exactly should I be looking at? for this to be correct or accurate. And then you officiate the offense differently than the defense. So you have to know the flow of the game. You have to kind of know a player's tendencies. You have to know the rule book. There's just all this stuff on top of that. And as she and I got to talking, I was like, okay, this is amazing.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Warriors win without Curry + Can NBA referees improve?
This is sort of a pulling back of the curtain that the average person doesn't get. Instead, we get the mistakes or we get the good calls or we get the game impacting things or we get the players flipping out. We get the technicals. We don't know what goes into it.