LeBron joins stars who say L2M report is unfair to refs

NBA players are wisely trying to get into the referees' good books by slamming the league's controversial last-two-minute reports.

Kevin Durant called them "bullshit," Dwyane Wade said they were "bad for our game," and now LeBron James is following suit.

"I'm not a fan of the two-minute report," James told ESPN's Dave McMenamin following Wednesday's practice. "I think it discredits what the referees are doing for 48 minutes. If that's the case, you might as well do a 48-minute report.

"It's not fair to the referees that you only talk about the final two minutes of the game and not the first 46. There's plays that's missed, there's plays that (are) called throughout 48 minutes that don't get talked about. I don't think it's fair for the referees that people get to have their opinions or scrutinize referees for the last two minutes because it discredits what the rest of the game is about. The rest of the game is played, you have to play the first two minutes like the last two minutes."

The league implemented L2M reports with the goal of making the game's officiating more transparent. The reports confirm that a large majority of calls are correct, but only the missed calls in crunch time tend to catch on as headlines.

The most recent example of this came when the L2M report after The Finals Christmas Day rematch cited two missed calls - one on James for hanging on the rim, another on the final play, in which Richard Jefferson bowled over Durant - that aided the Cleveland Cavaliers' comeback.

Naturally, since it points out mistakes after the fact, the referees union have since called for its removal, citing six reasons outlined in a detailed report published six months ago. One of the main arguments states: "Transparency encourages anger and hostility towards NBA officials."

Commissioner Adam Silver, however, is a staunch backer of L2M reports, since he wants the game to be "as transparent as possible."