The Knicks’ frustrations over Jacyn Goble’s errant call is boiling over.
The New York Knicks, on Monday night, were fighting tooth and nail to come away with a victory against the Houston Rockets despite being heavily shorthanded. They were without Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, Isaiah Hartenstein, and then to make matters worse, Donte DiVincenzo had to exit the contest late due to a hamstring issue. So one can only imagine how much uproar there was among Knicks players when referee Jacyn Goble whistled Jalen Brunson for a shooting foul in a tie game with less than a second to go, essentially handing over the game to the Rockets.
There were certainly plenty of expletives yelled out and towels and bottles thrown in frustration over the Knicks’ 105-103 loss that many would feel is undeserved, especially when crew chief Ed Malloy even admitted that the officials should not have called a foul on the play. In fact, the frustration of some players even boiled over during their postgame presser and on social media, with Josh Hart and Precious Achiuwa expressing their disgust over what had transpired in their own ways.
Hart, in particular, was a bit passive-aggressive in conveying his point during his postgame presser. Per Fred Katz, the Knicks forward and a reporter basically came to an agreement that Jacyn Goble’s call wasn’t “great”, with Hart imploring the media member to write about what took place at the end of the game.
Meanwhile, Precious Achiuwa was a bit more direct. He went to Twitter (X) to express his feelings, calling the referees’ gift of a win to the Rockets some “nasty work” complete with the facepalm (🤦🏾♂) emoji.
The Knicks are fighting for playoff positioning amid injuries to their key guys, so it makes it all the more infuriating when circumstances like this don’t go their way. They will be facing the Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, and Boston Celtics in their next three games, and a win here could have given them momentum heading into that difficult stretch of games.
Alas, all the Knicks can do now is channel that frustration into positive energy, as it’s hard to see the NBA doing anything drastic to penalize the official who got the call wrong.
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