‘I Was an NBA Referee For 27 Seasons

An ex-referee of 27 seasons has revealed the one player who was the biggest whiner in the NBA.

Since its inception in 1946, the NBA has been the leading organisation in basketball around the world, home to the greatest basketball players of all time. The pinnacle of the sport for many young players aspiring to reach their dreams, and naturally, breeds a competitive environment that can lead to disagreements and confrontations with officials.

Players’ reputations as being a ‘hothead’, a ‘whiner’ or one of the best trash talkers in NBA history can be the cause of many eye-rolls in the referees’ locker room at the prospect of officiating their matches.

In the current landscape of the NBA, players like Draymond Green, LeBron James, and Luka Doncic have built a reputation, and almost an expectation, to challenge decisions in a fiery manner.

The likes of Dennis Rodman and the infamous headbutt on referee Ted Bernhardt in a game for the Chicago Bulls, which saw him face a suspension and a fine, show to an extreme, how far this distasteful relationship between players and officials can go, and the image it can create for referees and fans.

During an interview back in 2003, a contender for the NBA’s biggest ‘whiner’ was thrown into the hat by ex-referee Darrell Garretson – and it may not come as a surprise to many.

Darrell Garretson Named NBA’s Biggest ‘Whiner’

Garretson said: “Rick Barry, a whiner and baiter. He was never satisfied. Up to today, he’s not satisfied. Some players are crybabies. You can’t talk to them. It’s important to talk to players, to warn them to back off instead of calling the quick foul and destroying the flow of the game.”

Garretson served between 1967 and 1994 and would’ve had many encounters with the small forward, who had built up a reputation for hotheaded behaviour towards the match officials.

Though it wasn’t just the players that were the target in Garretson’s scope, but coaches too, with the ex-official saying: “Coaches are tough, too.

“Once, during a Boston-LA series, I ejected coach K. C. Jones, and he didn’t want to leave. So the game couldn’t go on. Larry Bird walked up to me and asked why we couldn’t resume playing. I told him K. C. refused to go to the dugout, so Larry told him to get out of there. K. C. did what Larry told him to do.”

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