NBA Coaches Are Reaching a Boiling Point With Officiating - And It’s Starting to Show
It’s been a week of high emotions and short fuses across the NBA, and this time, it wasn’t just the players venting their frustration. Coaches - typically the ones trying to keep the locker room calm - found themselves at the center of the storm.
In the span of just a few days, both Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman and Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch were ejected from games after heated disputes with officials. And while coaches arguing calls isn’t exactly breaking news, the intensity and timing of these outbursts say a lot about the growing tension between teams and referees this season.
Let’s start with Adelman. Known for his composed sideline demeanor, the young Nuggets coach lost his cool in the fourth quarter of Denver’s 115-101 loss to the Houston Rockets.
The tipping point? A lack of whistles for Nikola Jokić, who took contact from Steven Adams and Jabari Smith Jr. without drawing a foul.
Adelman, seeking an explanation, instead got tossed - his first ejection as an NBA head coach.
“It felt like a reactionary game to earlier in the week,” Adelman said postgame. “They had one foul with five minutes to go in the second quarter.
Both teams played extremely hard, physical basketball. I give the Rockets credit - they crash the glass every time.
But then we get two soft fouls on our best player, and now he’s in foul trouble and has to sit.”
Adelman wasn’t just venting - he was connecting dots from a previous matchup between these two teams earlier in the week. That game, an overtime win for Denver, saw Jokić foul out despite dropping a 39-point triple-double.
The Rockets, meanwhile, were whistled frequently - all five starters picked up at least three fouls. Jokić and Jamal Murray combined for 26 free-throw attempts, matching Houston’s total as a team.
After that game, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka didn’t mince words. He lit into the officiating crew, calling it the “most poorly officiated game I’ve seen in a long time.”
“Two [officials] have no business being out there,” Udoka said. “And the crew chief was acting starstruck.” That’s not a throwaway line - that’s a head coach publicly calling out the integrity and consistency of the officiating in a marquee Western Conference matchup.
So when the rematch tipped off and the whistle seemed to swing the other way, Adelman’s frustration boiled over. It wasn’t just about one or two missed calls - it was about the lack of consistency from game to game. And that’s a sentiment shared by more than a few coaches right now.
But even with all that, Chris Finch may have had the most explosive moment of the week.
Less than six minutes into Minnesota’s game against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, Finch erupted after Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle were both fouled on the same possession - and no calls came. The Timberwolves coach had to be physically restrained by his staff as he shouted at the officials, eventually earning an early exit.
According to reports, Finch’s frustration wasn’t just about that one play. It was years of built-up irritation with how the Thunder are officiated compared to other teams. And while his ejection was dramatic, it may have sparked something in his squad - Minnesota went on to grind out a 112-107 win.
This isn’t just about a few hot-tempered moments. What we’re seeing is a broader disconnect between coaching staffs and officiating crews.
Coaches and players alike are fine with physical basketball - in fact, many prefer it. But when the whistle feels unpredictable, when one night’s foul is the next night’s no-call, frustration builds.
The NBA has been working to crack down on flopping and to clean up some of the gray areas in how the game is called. But that process is still ongoing, and in the meantime, teams are left trying to navigate a moving target.
When coaches like Adelman, Finch, and Udoka speak out - or get tossed - it’s not just about venting. It’s about drawing attention to what they see as a lack of fairness in how the game is being officiated.
Human error is part of sports, no question. But the message from the sidelines this week was loud and clear: teams want a level playing field.
They want their stars to be able to play without being handcuffed by questionable foul calls. And they want officials to hold themselves to the same standard of consistency and accountability that teams are expected to meet every night.
Until that happens, don’t be surprised if more coaches start making their frustrations known - one technical at a time.