{"id":570559,"date":"2026-03-28T19:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T19:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570559\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T19:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T19:15:08","slug":"gg-jackson-says-officials-favor-vets-like-rockets-kevin-durant-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570559\/","title":{"rendered":"GG Jackson says officials favor vets like Rockets&#8217; Kevin Durant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">MEMPHIS, Tenn. &#8212; <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/5105550\/gg-jackson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">GG Jackson<\/a> doesn&#8217;t think the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/mem\/memphis-grizzlies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> are getting a fair shake from officials compared to other teams&#8217; stars such as the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/hou\/houston-rockets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Houston Rockets<\/a>&#8216; <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/3202\/kevin-durant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kevin Durant<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">After the Grizzlies lost to the Rockets <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/game\/_\/gameId\/401810924\/rockets-grizzlies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">119-109<\/a> on Friday night, Jackson was critical of calls going in favor of Durant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;KD can jab step and jab step and just jump up and down and your hand is right there,&#8221; said Jackson, in his third season out of <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/team\/_\/id\/2579\/south-carolina-gamecocks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Carolina<\/a>. &#8220;[You] clearly see on the replay that nobody touched him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Durant, the 6-foot-11 forward in his 19th season, went to the line seven times while leading the Rockets with 25 points. He added 10 assists and six rebounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Rockets went to the line 26 times compared to 18 for the Grizzlies, but Jackson focused on Durant with his comments. He implied that the veteran gets the benefit of calls, while younger players pay the price.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;It&#8217;s unbelievable how the refs can suck up to somebody,&#8221; Jackson said. &#8220;He&#8217;s the GOAT, so I respect that, but as far as us other guys, we bust our [tails] like he does.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">There could have been some frustration bleeding into the comments from Jackson, usually a jovial guy who is likely to laugh and joke during interviews. But the Grizzlies lost their fifth straight and have only won once in their past 14 games. Jackson has earned more playing time as many of the Grizzlies&#8217; starters and rotation players are dealing with injuries, several of them done for the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Jackson is averaging 12 points per game and scored 14 in the loss to Houston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">At one point, when Jackson complained about calls, he said Rockets reserve <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4433192\/tari-eason\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tari Eason<\/a> told the Memphis forward that he was not Durant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;On this court, I&#8217;m the closest one to him,&#8221; Jackson said.br\/]<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEMPHIS, Tenn. &#8212; GG Jackson doesn&#8217;t think the Memphis Grizzlies are getting a fair shake from officials compared&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[280247,64,63,223681,794,7220,280246,5851,590,44,85],"class_list":["post-570559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-280247","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-durant-kevin","tag-espn","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jackson-gg","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}