The New York Knicks had a late tip on Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. Those who stayed up to catch the 11 p.m. game had to not only endure Richard Jefferson making his officiating debut in the second quarter, but also a 88-77 loss. Tough.
For the 10-minute quarter, ESPN had a split-screen with Monty McCutchen, the Senior Vice President of Referee Development and Training. The main focus of the quarter wasn’t the Knicks-Trail Blazers game, but instead every move that Jefferson made. He forgot to put his hand up on a 3-point attempt and the broadcast mentioned it every 10 seconds.
As if that wasn’t enough, ESPN brought on Mark Jackson during the fourth quarter. You can guess what the main topic of discussion was. It was relentless for the whole night, even in the first quarter.
Great so my night is gonna be about watching Richard Jefferson’s coming out party 🤮
— Julito McCullum aka LITO (@IamJulito) July 12, 2022
Twitter reacts to Richard Jefferson’s officiating debut during Knicks-Blazers game
New York finished the first quarter with a 24-9 lead but went into the half down by one. What happened? Richard Jefferson (and some bad basketball on the Knicks’ part).
Imposter RJ shows up and the Knicks struggle for the first time all Summer League. Makes ya think
— Rit Holtzman (@BenRitholtzNBA) July 12, 2022
But you know that fans were letting him hear it.
.@iHateShaun doing his thing out in Vegas 🤣🤣🤣
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) July 12, 2022
pic.twitter.com/WQsmbvVtTj
In that clip, the ball went out on New York, but Jefferson said that it was the Knicks’ ball. He ended up getting corrected.
Shortly after, Jericho Sims had a crafty transition move, throwing in a Euro step and getting an and-1. Instead of taking the time to talk about what just happened in the basketball game (you know, the main event), the broadcast instead addressed Jefferson’s foul call technique.
*Jericho with the and 1*
— Daily Knicks (@DailyKnicksFS) July 12, 2022
"How was Richard's foul call technique there?"
Yes, that really happened.
I made it 3 minutes into this quarter before muting
— Andrew Claudio (@AndrewJClaudio_) July 12, 2022
But if you were smart enough, you put the game on mute because it wasn’t about the basketball that was being played on the floor but about Jefferson.
To top it all off, Jorge Sedano said in the third quarter that Knicks fans may not want to hear it, but that they should embrace the youth movement. Where has he been? Fans have lost their voices screaming at Tom Thibodeau to “PLAY THE KIDS!!”
Jorge Sedano telling Knicks fans to embrace the youth movement pic.twitter.com/tgQRnopJGv
— Jeremy Cohen (@TheCohencidence) July 12, 2022
In all honesty, having Jefferson officiate a quarter of basketball wasn’t a bad idea, but ESPN went overboard and turned it into a joke. There’s a time and a place, and it wasn’t the time, nor the place.

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