Former Knicks Coach Rips Olympic Officials

A former New York Knicks assistant coach believes his current proteges received anything but the Royal treatment at the Olympic Games.

Called upon to lead South Sudan’s maiden Olympic voyage in Paris’ men’s basketball competition, head coach Royal Ivey took exception Saturday’s finale, which saw the Bright Stars’ ringed run end with a 96-85 loss to Serbia in group play in Lille. In the aftermath, Ivey ripped the game’s officiating, which awarded Serbia 31 free throws as opposed to six for the South Sudanese. Former Westchester Knicks Nuni Omot had four tries alone en route to 14 points.

“They shot 31 free throws; we shot six free throws?” Ivey said, per the Associated Press. “Let’s tell the story. Let’s tell the real story, because that’s a travesty. How do they shoot 31 free throws and we shoot six free throws? How?”

“My guys were out there giving their all, blood, sweat, and tears, and you tell me how we shot six free throws? We shot one free throw in the second half.”

Ivey, a Harlem native, served as an assistant on the Knicks’ staff for two seasons (2018-20) under David Fizdale and Mike Miller. He is currently an assistant coach on Ime Udoka’s staff in Houston and played 10 NBA seasons with five different teams.

Under Ivey’s watch, South Sudan qualified for the Olympics as the top finishing African team in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, earning their first such bid just over a decade after the nation declared independence.

During it’s brief Olympic run, the Bright Stars became one of the feel-good stories of the Olympic basketball affairs, notably bringing the mighty American national team to the brink in an exhibition staged shortly before the Paris Games tipped off. South Sudan later defeated Puerto Rico in its Olympic debut before falling to Team USA in a more decisive fashion.

Things ended with a heartbreaker on Saturday: facing a Serbian group led by NBA MVP Nikola Jokic (Denver), Ivey’s men withstood several breakaway attempts and trailed by only five entering the fourth quarter.

Whistles, however, proved hard to come by, as the South Sudanese were fully denied trips to the foul line during the final period. Serbia (2-1) hit only 68 percent of its freebie attempts (21-of-31) but that was enough to make a difference on the scoreboard.

Had the Bright Stars won or kept their losing margin to two points or less, they would’ve earned an improbable invite to the knockout round, which tips off this week in Paris. Instead, they were worst among third-place group finishers in the all-important point differential tiebreaker. Brazil and Greece will go in their place, with the former set to face Team USA in the Parisian quarterfinals on Tuesday (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC).

South Sudanese basketball federation president and longtime NBA veteran Luol Deng agreed with Ivey’s assessment and questioned the lack of African referees in the tournament. Saturday’s game was called by Juan Fernández, Yohan Rosso, and Ademir Zurapović, who respectively hail from Argentina, France, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“I don’t know why there are no African referees in the Olympics. It’s 2024,” Deng said. “If we’re representing the continent, then we’ve got to be represented fully. That’s something that we’ve got to keep working on. But if these referees aren’t familiar with our game, with our style, then I don’t know what the world championship or the Olympics is.”

It’s likely no consolation, but the South Sudanese no doubt won plenty of respect from their competition. Saturday’s leading scorer Bogdan Bogdanovic (Atlanta) admitted to being “scared” of the Bright Stars entering the game despite the team carrying only one active NBA player on its roster (Charlotte’s JT Thor).

“They had a great tournament,” Bogdanovic said. “We’ve known them since the World Cup. They really got better.”

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