{"id":61623,"date":"2025-08-06T02:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T02:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/61623\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T02:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T02:53:14","slug":"espn-commentator-backs-ariel-atkins-for-lashing-out-at-referee-over-contentious-foul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/61623\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Commentator Backs Ariel Atkins For Lashing Out at Referee Over Contentious Foul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">When the Chicago Sky entered the court versus the Washington Mystics, tensions were running high with Angel Reese\u2019s continued absence. But the team finally had Ariel Atkins on the court, and did they show up! Not without a little chaos, though, one that baffled even the broadcasters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">It all came just under six minutes into the third quarter after Atkins sank an 11-foot jumper to extend the Sky\u2019s lead to 49\u201336. Just seconds later, Kia Nurse was whistled for a personal foul\u2014and then chaos ensued. While Atkins was battling for position near the paint, she collided into Citron, who was also about to go to the line. Then? Despite Shakira Austin\u2019s interference, the refs called it a personal foul, but instant replays told a different story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">\u201cWatch Shakira Austin,\u201d one broadcaster urged viewers. \u201cShe caused the collision\u2026 almost pushed [Atkins] into Sonia Citron.\u201d And yes, playbacks showed Shakira\u2019s physicality clearly forcing the contact that sent Atkins stumbling into Citron\u2019s space. But despite the visible push, no challenge was issued on the play. \u201cThat would be a hard call,\u201d the broadcaster admitted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Chicago Sky entered the court versus the Washington Mystics, tensions were running high with Angel Reese\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-61623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}