George King didn’t mince words after the San Miguel Beermen lost to Barangay Ginebra San Miguel again on Friday to trail their PBA Governor’s Cup best-of-five series, two games to nil.
In a nutshell, King told Rebanse that Ginebra’s import, Jordan Murphy, may have gotten the benefit of a generous whistle. And the 21 free-throw attempts, for King, are proof of that.
“I think if you look at the free throws and the foul count, I believe Murphy shot 20-something free throws,” King said. “I’ve been on the other end of that where I’ve shot 23 free throws and I’ve shot 15 free throws in games, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t necessarily earn all 15 to 20 of my free throws. Some of them were just given to me by the officials. I would say the same tonight.”
Referees Were Favoring Murphy, According to King
From an insinuation, King eventually leveled an accusation as he outright claimed that the officiating favored Ginebra.
“Some of that, you got to credit Jordan as well for being aggressive,” King continued. “But for that to happen, I thought that was a little absurd for a player to get 20, and then you shot 22 or 21 free throws, and we as a team shot 23. So, when you look at it that way, it’s tough. It’s like I felt the referees tonight were favoring one team, which it shouldn’t be.”
Murphy, indeed, shot 21 times from the free-throw line, converting 16. As a team, Ginebra went 24-for-31, while San Miguel shot 18-for-23 from the charity stripe. Curiously, the foul disparity was minimal, with San Miguel whistled for 24 fouls to Ginebra’s 22.
Does It Have Merit?
It’s easy to get caught up in King’s serious accusation. But if he is to level such a serious accusation against the referees, it might be prudent if he can actually give more concrete proof. A player getting awarded 20-plus free throws isn’t necessarily a sign of biased officiating.
In fact, King himself admitted in the same interview that he has shot 15-20 freebies in games. Rain or Shine Elasto Painters import Aaron Fuller got 17 attempts from the charity stripe a game later on Friday, in the Converge FiberXers’ pulsating 130-125 win over the Elasto Painters. King’s own teammate, June Mar Fajardo, routinely trooped to the line in his prime, while Cjay Perez attempted 10 freebies in that same loss.
So, no, high free-throw counts might not necessarily indicate bias. Again, as King himself noted, Murphy was aggressive, and the Beermen had no one to match up with him. King routinely got bullied. Don Trollano was too small, while Rodney Brondial couldn’t keep up. Fajardo had the size but was too slow.
Then again, it is well within George King’s right to feel short-changed. Everyone has that right. There are also proper channels for that.
