Celtics star Jayson Tatum seems to have made an eerie premonition back in November, following a no-call in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, about the ankle injury he sustained against the Sacramento Kings last night.
Celtics fans held their breath as Tatum limped off the court in the third quarter of Monday’s road game, apparently hurt off a hard foul. He had just made his fifth 3-pointer of the game when Kings big man Domantas Sabonis entered his landing zone, and Tatum’s left foot landed on Sabonis’ sneaker, turning awkwardly. Boston’s star stayed on the floor, gripping his ankle and writhing in pain.
The extent of Tatum’s injury is still unknown, though reports from writers on the road postgame indicate he wasn’t seen in a walking boot. Either way, an MVP candidate from the defending NBA champions sustaining a preventable injury in late March is a grim moment for both the Celtics and the league at large – especially because Tatum spoke out about dangerous closeouts from defenders on November 10th, after Bucks center Giannis Antetokounmpo jumped into his landing space in a similar way to Sabonis. Antetokounmpo wasn’t hit with a flagrant foul for his move.
“Certain calls, I feel like, you just can’t miss,” Tatum told reporters after that game. “Your job is to protect the guys on the court, protect the shooter. That’s something I could have been out for six weeks, or whatever.”
Four months later, Tatum saw a different roster of officials slap a Flagrant 1 on Sabonis, but the damage was already done. He was able to shoot free throws before he walked to the locker room with assistance from trainers.
The NBA instituted the “Zaza rule” in the 2017-2018 season to prevent reckless closeouts, defined as when a defender tries to move or jump into the area where a shooter lands on the court. The unofficial rule name comes from Zaza Pachulia, former Golden State Warriors Center. In Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals, Pachulia stepped into then-San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard’s landing space – causing Leonard to roll his ankle upon landing. Pachulia had already gained a reputation for his physical play style and Leonard’s team went on to lose the series.
The league still hasn’t solved the foul seven years later, and that’s a problem. When officials are inconsistent in their calls, players naturally exploit what they see as a loophole in the rulebook. Sabonis was apologetic in his comments about the foul postgame. He’s not the only NBA player to make defensive mistakes in the moment. Even Derrick White – NBA posterchild teammate – picked up a Flagrant 1 for a reckless closeout last season.
Injuries happen, and NBA players suffer from ankle sprains more than anything. But Tatum was right in November when he said the officials’ most important job is to protect the players. There’s increasing tension between stars and refs, as players voice their frustrations with officials’ accountability but everyone in the locker room has to tip-toe around possible fines.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has insisted officials are graded on every call and held accountable, but annual player surveys from the Athletic report players grieving the inconsistencies of calls, with one anonymous player in 2024 stating, "There’s eight elite officials who are great at communicating and at officiating, and then there’s four (who can do) one of each, where they can either officiate or they can communicate. And the rest of them are just … bad."
The only solution is a doubling-down on enforcement of this call so that the players’ instincts to try to make the play are curbed, because it’s not worth the punishment. When officials miss a call that carries flagrant implications, they should face a different level of accountability – whether monetarily or otherwise. There has to be a greater effort to prevent dangerous play.
The officials in Monday’s game called it correctly, so this absolutely is not a "blame the refs" situation. However, NBA officiating as a group sets the tone of physicality in the league, and players and coaches follow suit. Unfortunately, Sabonis’ foul was one Tatum had already seen.