Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Luncheon of the Boating Party; Pierre-Auguste Renoir; 1880-81

NBA referees are open game for criticism. But watching literally any other basketball competition in the world makes you long for the Bill Kennedys or Zach Zarbas or Lauren Holtkamps or Scott Fosters. (Well, no, not the Scott Fosters.) And so we turn a weary eye toward the Olympic men’s basketball tournament, where in Lille, France, officials made two critical calls that … huh, what do you know? They helped the French narrowly survive a group play game with Japan.

First, refs ejected Rui Hachimura — who was shredding for Japan — on two rather soft calls. This would be soft in the pre-Gladiator NBA. In a typically physical FIBA competition it’s stunning. Both of these calls were called “unsportsmanlike” which are the equivalent of flagrants in the NBA. Hopefully this clip survives long enough for you to see it.

In case the IOC disappears the clip: on the first play Hachimura bumps Bilal Coulibaly with his shoulder on a drive to the basket. It’s a little lazy but Coulibaly doesn’t even lose his feet. It should have been a common foul. There has been contact like this in this tournament with no call whatsoever. The second unsportsmanlike, in the fourth, happens when Hachimura grabs Rudy Gobert’s arm as he goes up for a dunk. This is a fringe flagrant at best in the NBA. But because he already had one, he’s gone.

The Hachimura ejection should have been a death blow for Japan, but behind 5’8 Yuki Kawamura the team stayed attached and even took a 4-point lead into the closing seconds. And this is where the real screwjob happened. ...