Stan Van Gundy Rips Refs For Letting LeBron James ‘Do Whatever He Wants’

It’s no secret that sports superstars tend to get a few calls to go their way throughout a game. And LeBron James certainly counts as a superstar.

The Detroit Pistons only trailed the Cleveland Cavaliers by two points at the end of the first quarter in Game 1 of the teams’ first-round NBA playoff series Sunday, but Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy was more focused on the lack of offensive foul calls against James when he spoke with ESPN’s Lisa Salters after the frame.

“A couple calls have upset our guys,” Van Gundy says in the video. “They’ve got to understand, LeBron’s LeBron. They’re not going to call offensive fouls on him. He gets to do whatever he wants. They’ve got to understand that.”

Regardless of the way the referees called the game, the Pistons had a golden chance to steal a game before falling 106-101.

Afterward, Van Gundy decided to take a different approach when talking with reporters.

“Look, I thought it evened out really well,” Van Gundy said, via ESPN. “But early on I thought there were two pretty obvious offensive fouls down there on him. But it’s two calls in an entire game after that.

“Look, the refereeing had nothing to do with tonight. They did a good job. It went both ways. I thought they did a really good job. It was decided by the players on the floor, as it should be.”

Thumbnail photo via Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports Images