NBA officials get a bad rap and often get more than a deserved earful from players and fans alike. And while they don’t really need defending, it’s nice every now and again to point out that they are literally the best options to officiate high-speed, high-contact basketball that we have at our disposal. Seriously, try making a public plea to be more supportive to refs at your next dinner party and see how well that goes over in the room.
Perhaps it’s better to just silently enjoy the few moments refs appear to have permission to have fun. Like when they are making a theatrical event of announcing the results of a replay review. Few, if any, officials are better at dining out on their seconds of glory than Bill Kennedy. He won’t just give you the call. He’ll give you the pizzaz.
So he was a likely culprit to put a little mustard on a traveling violation committed by Michael Porter Jr. in Tuesday night’s Raptors-Nets tilt.
It’s not mocking, lolz, he’s making sure everyone knows that he violated the slightly obscure Hop rule that says you can’t gather with a foot down and hop consecutively on that same foot https://t.co/wu4fkHsuRF
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) November 12, 2025
Excellent work. It was a travel and anyone inclined to complain about it simply need watch the little hop routine Kennedy demonstrated. Like it or not he’s part of the show and he’s not about to be caught not knowing the footwork.
The X account “BrickCenter” may think Kennedy was somehow mocking Porter Jr. here but don’t let the flurry of crying emojis distract from the fact that the ref was simply doing his job. Far too often we we see six or seven dribble-less steps go unnoticed. Perhaps if officials know they have creative license to put a little razzle-dazzle into their calls we can defeat this scourge.
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