John Goble, the referee confronted by Austin Reaves and the Los Angeles Lakers after their Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, was rated among the lowest-performing officials in a recent survey conducted by the National Basketball Players Association, according to a May 14 statement.
The annual Referee Player Survey gathered feedback from 411 players across all 30 teams, asking them to rate referees on a scale of one to five. The results placed officials into three categories: Tier 1 (Elite and Top Performers), Tier 2 (Solid Performers), and Tier 3 (Needs Improvement). Goble was listed among twenty referees in the “Needs Improvement” tier. The NBPA recommended that only Tier 1 or Tier 2 referees be assigned to playoff games, with only Tier 1 officials working during the NBA Finals.
According to the NBPA’s findings, Goble would not have been assigned as an official for Western Conference Semifinals games based on player preferences. The association’s recommendations were sent to league offices one month before being made public. The survey evaluated all seventy-three referees currently officiating in the league.
Expectations around officiating were high heading into the Lakers-Thunder matchup due to both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s reputation and Oklahoma City’s aggressive defense. “They don’t foul, so the whistles aren’t gonna be there. You accept that going in. They don’t foul,” JJ Redick said before the series began. “You’re talking about a team that is top five in every category that’s disruptive based; steals, blocks, turnovers forced, all that stuff… And they don’t foul. They somehow do all of that without fouling, which is one of the most remarkable things, I think, in NBA history.”
After Game 2, Reaves explained his frustration with Goble: “I felt like I was respectful to all of them all night… And he turned around and yelled in my face. I just thought it was disrespectful… At the end of the day, we’re grown men and I just didn’t feel like he needed to yell in my face like that… I told him if I did that to him first, I would’ve gotten a tech… I feel like the only reason I didn’t get a tech was because he knew he was in the wrong. I just felt disrespected.”
The NBPA released full lists for each referee tier following this year’s survey results.