JB Bickerstaff Had The Rant Of The Year By Completely Unloading On The NBA's Officiating

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Each season, we tend to get one or two awesome postgame rants from an NBA coach. Recent ones that come to mind are of course the David Fizdale "Take that for data!" rant and the Darko Rajakovic rant from last season

Those were both fantastic rants. You'd think by now we'd have plenty of candidates sof awr this season given that it's mid March, but that hasn't really been the case. Sure coaches have been complaining in their postgame pressers, but these moments are different than just your standard complaining.

Well, the good news is we finally have a worthy candidate. I'd like to present JB Bickerstaff

You'll never believe this, but this is coming after having to play OKC. As someone who just had to watch his favorite team deal with that (in a loss) and experienced that inconsistent whistle, I can relate to JB here. Nothing he says is wrong. It's not about the flopping or even the FTA when it comes to playing the Thunder. All that is fine and part of the game today. What's annoying is the inconsistency of the whistle. What they are allowed to do defensively and what you are allowed to do defensively are not the same thing. The level of contact allowed is just way too big of a gap, and that's why there's this level of frustration you hear coach after coach address.

The SGA flopping stuff may go viral on Twitter, but that's not really the issue. Everyone flops. Everyone embellishes. It's more that when you defend SGA and you give him the slightest bump, it's a foul whether he embellishes or not. Yet on the other end, every single OKC defender hand checks, creates contact, reaches etc, and they don't have to deal with the same whistle. 

You also have to remember what went into JB feeling this way, and it's not just the foul inconsistency. The way Cade got tossed was complete bullshit

Hey Adam Silver, great job dealing with your officiating problem! Really helping your own product here! 

This is why when I hear people suggest that 3pt shooting is the biggest problem in the NBA my brain melts. No, the #1 problem in the NBA is their officiating. Full stop. 

So you take that bullshit and the inconsistent whistle and then rewatch JB Bickerstaff's rant, and it suddenly makes a whole lot of sense. The Pistons aren't some dogshit bottom of the league team. They are a team fighting for a top 4 seed with an All NBA point guard and good young talent. 

This is one of those rants where as a coach you probably just say fuck it and accept the fine. The equity that he built in his locker room with his players is easily worth the $25,000. You get more buy in, more belief, an increase in a willingness to be coached and put forth your best effort. Heading into a playoff run, that's all worth it. It also doesn't hurt that he's not wrong.