Monty McCutchen says referee from Lakers-Celtics game was out of position and unable to see Jayson Tatum’s foul on LeBron James

By now, most NBA fans have probably seen the missed foul call on LeBron James at the end of the recent game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.

The miss was so egregious that the NBA apparently reached out to the Lakers immediately after the contest to inform them that James had in fact been fouled by Celtics superstar forward Jayson Tatum.

Plenty of people across the league bashed that game’s officiating crew for missing the foul, and one former NBA referee recently spoke about the matter.

Monty McCutchen, the NBA’s senior vice president of referee development and training, attributed the missed call to a “lack of fundamentals.” Jacyn Goble, the baseline referee during the play, was seemingly in the wrong position and unable to see the foul.

“We want our referees in a still position,” McCutchen said, according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “We want movement to be purposeful, meaning, ‘Oh, someone stood in front of me. I need to make a definitive step to the left one step.’ But we can’t allow ourselves to get into rapid movement at the same time that the play is coming to a head.

While it’s good that the league acknowledged the missed call immediately after it happened, it didn’t do the Lakers much good. They lost the game in overtime and were unable to secure what would’ve been a huge win.

Other NBA players and media were outraged about the blunder and expressed their displeasure about the no-call.

The Lakers have likely fully moved on from the game and are now fully focused on gaining ground in the Western Conference standings. They secured a nice overtime victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night and are now 24-28 on the season.

The team is just three games back of the Golden State Warriors for the fifth seed in the conference and two games back of the final play-in tournament spot.

Recent acquisition Rui Hachimura has done well to start his Lakers tenure, but the team definitely needs another piece or two in order to really be a contender. NBA insider Chris Haynes believes Rob Pelinka has a “move or two left” in him to make the Lakers competitive this season.