Jacyn Goble was standing right next to the play last night on the “flop” that the league has gone on to admit the next day was a missed call that benefited Jayson Tatum and the Celtics in a close call where the point swing potentially could have directly impacted the outcome of the game.
Jacyn Goble was also the referee standing right underneath the basket in plain view of the infamous “Sleepness Nights” incident from last season with LeBron James. Again, a blatant no-call benefited Jayson Tatum and the Celtics in call that could have directly impacted the result of the game.
In both cases, not only were the calls blown, but a technical foul was assessed to the opposing team directly after, doubling down on the mistake and further cementing the outcome incorrectly in favor of the Celtics.
People are going to want to fact check, so here are the game pages confirming that Jacyn Goble was indeed the referee present in both games.
I have two theories:
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Jacyn Goble sympathizes with a fellow member of the “weird spelling of Jason” club and gives him preferential treatment.
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Jacyn Goble can’t actually see Jayson Tatum and therefore is unable to calls fouls on him.
Eric Lewis, the referee who defended Goble by calling a technical on the Lakers after the missed call was involved in the notorious social media scandal last season that resulted in his dismissal as a referee.
Ben Taylor, the referee who called the flopping technical on Brunson, made the headlines last season after being called out by name by Fred Vanvleet after a Raptors game that seems to have resulted in a demotion. The aforementioned Eric Lewis was also present in that game.
Just want to throw this out there
Celtics are 17-10 (.630) in games that Goble refs since he started in 2016-17. The same winning percentage as their 350-205 (.630) over that same time span. 5 other teams have better winning percentages when Jacyn Goble refs their game.
They average the same number of fouls across the total sample and games he refs, and average about 2 more FT’s in games he refs (21 to 23)
I’m unsure how to check the opponent data but I’d be willing to bet it’s probably in the ballpark as well.
He’s pretty on par for any other Celtics’ games referees as far as the numbers go, and although the Celtics have posted a 3-0 record in the playoffs, the Heat and the 76ers are also 2-0.
Seems like he doesn’t get put on those series considering how frequently these teams have met in the playoffs in the last 7 season and so the playoff data seems inconsequential and too small of a sample to draw any conclusions.
He might have some sight Celtics bias if you want to believe that despite the data not really supporting it, but unless he also has some burner like Eric Lewis did, nothing is ever going to come from some witch hunt no matter how much you hate the Celtics