Even the late Rodney Dangerfield would have agreed that after arriving in Boston, Nenad Krstic has received no respect from NBA referees. If you look at the numbers, he’s being called for 3.7 fouls per game since his arrival, while he averaged only 2.3 an outing in Oklahoma City. But after six years in the League, you’d think he’d earn himself some clout. Watch the following play from Monday night’s game in Indiana to see what Krstic means when he says the refs are making him feel like a rookie again:
“I don’t know if it’s a foul or not, but definitely on the other end, he jumped on my back,” Krstic said. “I couldn’t catch the ball because he was on my back.”
As you can see, clearly A.J. Price mauls him and even raises his hand for the foul, so you can understand why Krstic would be puzzled with the outcome of this play. Julian Benbow of The Boston Globe caught up with him after the game to get his thoughts:
“I’m back in my rookie year,” Krstic said. “When I was a rookie I didn’t get many calls. So I feel like the same thing right now. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m playing with great players. I don’t know. I really don’t have an explanation.
“Those couple minutes, you’re frustrated, but then you try to forget about it. It affects you, especially this situation for me when Coach is stressing for me to do everything right and just to relax and play, then you don’t get calls. It’s tough.
“You can’t control it. You can’t get frustrated, but those things I can get a technical called for arguing with the referees. It’s tough.”
We just wish Tommy Heinsohn was there to see this…
What do you think?
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