Steve Nash Didn’t Challenge An Obvious Bad Foul Call Because ‘A Little Bird Said Don’t Challenge’

The Brooklyn Nets went out to the west coast to take on the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night, and while Kyrie Irving was on the floor, Brooklyn didn’t have the services of Kevin Durant or James Harden. As a result, the team didn’t quite have enough firepower to take down the Dubs, and the home team won, 110-106.

There was a moment late in the game, however, that presented a gigantic swing in Golden State’s favor. Steph Curry pump faked and got Kessler Edwards in the air, at which point he jumped into the Nets’ rookie, pretended to shoot for a split second, then realized nothing good could come of it and passed. The problem for Brooklyn was that Edwards, somehow, got called for a foul here.

If anything, Curry initiating the contact here means that the foul should have been called on him. But instead, he got the call, went to the line, and knocked down a pair of free throws to extend the Warriors’ lead to 102-97. There was an avenue through which this could have been remedied — the Nets had not used their challenge at this point — but Steve Nash decided he didn’t want to do that.

It raised the question: Why on earth did he do that when this is an objectively bad call that is going against his team? As Nash explained after the game, it’s because someone told him not to do that.

With the loss, Brooklyn fell to sixth place in the Eastern Conference.