Officiating in the WNBA has been a point of contention for many across the league this season, with players and coaches including Becky Hammon, Stephanie White and Angel Reese calling out refs at various points this year.
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum especially felt the issues of officiating last month in a loss to the Valkyries. Plum repeatedly called the lack of calls she received "absurd," especially since she was fouled many times in the game.
Ahead of Saturday's All-Star Game, Plum spoke further on the league's officiating problem, pointing to a lack of consistency from refs across the entire game as the main issue.
"I have no problem with the physicality, I think people are getting frustrated at the consistency," Plum told reporters. "It's like a ticky-tack here, and then someone gets absolutely assaulted over here, and it's like, where's the line? And when do we call it and why do we call it? A lot of teams specifically play me very physically, to try and wear me down throughout the game, but a foul is a foul. A foul in the first quarter is a foul in the fourth quarter. It's like, 'if you're not going to call it in the first, that's fine, but don't call it in the fourth.' Or let me guard them that way that they guard me."
Kelsey Plum on WNBA officiating pic.twitter.com/ikp9tWd2uC
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Not only is there a lack of consistency, but also not enough accountability for errors in officiating. Plum would also like to see accountability from the refs and the league when mistakes are made, which happens in the NBA.
"As a ref, they're not as penalized as we are. ... It's like, 'oh we reviewed it,' but those three calls changed the game. That's it," Plum said. "It's part of our sport, you have to be resilient and accept it, but at the same time, they have to grow. The NBA comes out and says 'in the fourth quarter, with these two calls, we missed both of these.' I think that's really important for our league to grow in terms of its integrity."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sparks' Kelsey Plum Calls Out Biggest Problem With Officiating in WNBA.
