Trae Young Almost Ripped a Ref's Head Off After a Terrible No-Call to End Atlanta's Loss to the Mavericks

It was brought to my attention last night that bowling through somebody who's set is not a foul in the NBA in the final five seconds. Apparently, it's a free-for-all within the last minute because we can't have a game decided by free throws when somebody commits a foul, regardless of how clear and egregious it may be.

But I was far from the angriest person about the way the end of the Hawks-Mavs game finished, because Trae Young about ripped that ref's head off after the final buzzer. I honestly thought something really bad might happen. But it got me hype to see Trae go at the official after that, because he had every right to be that pissed. That was a clear foul. Young's nose was bleeding from taking an elbow to the face.

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Willie Cauley-Stein even admitted that he didn't see the guy in a good position to set a screen and just went right through him. That's generally defined by the rules as a foul. And by the way, if the screen was designed to draw a foul and you bulldoze right through the guy, then yeah, that actually is a "good try." Because it worked and should have resulted in free throws.

It's incredibly unfortunate that a game which would have vaulted the Hawks from 8th place to 5th in the Eastern Conference was stolen by incompetent officiating and I'm glad Trae Young let the official know he fucked up. Hopefully this flagrant error will serve as an example to make sure this doesn't happen again going forward.

Fuck that ref and fuck Willie Cauley-Stein.