Rick Carlisle Rips NBA Refs Over Lakers’ Free Throw Disparity

NBA referees have been under the microscope a lot during the 2023-24 regular season. There have been some egregious calls that have determined the outcome of games, while missed calls have caused the same level of frustration.

Just like in any job, mistakes are going to happen. There will always be some human error and players have gotten very good at deceiving the referees into believing they are seeing something to blow their whistle.

As long as games are called consistently throughout, players and coaches normally won’t have much to complain about. But, there are some teams and players who seemingly are refereed differently than their peers, which leads to some frustrations emerging.

The latest team to be on the receiving end of that was the Indiana Pacers. They faced off against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday and in the opinion of head coach Rick Carlisle, the playing field was not even.

He ripped apart the referees after the game. His biggest gripe was with the disparity in the number of fouls called for and against his team, which led to a massive difference in free throws attempted as well.

“There were certain things that were impossible to overcome,” Carlisle said. “The 27 free throw differential is one and the 17 foul differential is the other. And I’ll leave it at that.”