The elbow hit the storm, the referee awarded a penalty, and the controversy continued.
On April 23, 2024, the CBA playoffs will stage a key battle. The Guangdong team played away against the Guangsha team, and the two sides came and went, and they were equal. The game entered the white-hot stage, and the center of the Guangdong team, Zhou Qi, suddenly clashed on the inside, and he swung his elbow to slam the opponent Li Jinxiao's face goal. This behavior immediately attracted the attention of the referee team, and after replay and judgment, they made a heavy penalty decision to expel Zhou Qi from the game. The rare decision certainly added more drama to the game.
Zhou Qi was in an uproar one by one, and fans and experts had a heated discussion on the matter. Supporters believe that Zhou Qi's behavior has violated the bottom line of the rules, and the referee's punishment is reasonable. Opponents questioned that the punishment was too harsh and failed to reflect the principle of fairness and justice.
Let's take a look back at that time. As the game entered the second half, the scramble between the players on both sides became more intense. In the process of fighting for rebounds on the inside, Zhou Qi suddenly swung his elbow and hit Li Jinxiao of the Guangsha team in the face hard. This action caused an uproar in the audience, and the referee quickly blew for Zhou Qi's physical foul.
It doesn't end there. The referee team communicated and negotiated with the coaching staff of the two teams and decided to review the video replay. After carefully watching the slow-motion replay from multiple angles, the referee made a surprising penalty decision: Zhou Qi was judged to have committed a serious foul and was expelled from the game.
This rare heavy penalty immediately sparked widespread controversy. Supporters believe that Zhou Qi's behavior has violated the bottom line of sportsmanship and seriously endangered the personal safety of the opponent, so the referee's punishment is completely reasonable. Some senior football commentators even bluntly criticized Zhou Qi's lack of professionalism and lost his mind at a critical moment, which brought a heavy blow to himself and the team.
But there are also many people who question this. They believe that although Zhou Qi's behavior was indeed too intense, it was not out of deliberate harm, but on impulse. In this case, the expulsion is too harsh and affects the fairness of the game. Some fans pointed out that similar physical confrontations are not uncommon on the basketball court, but they are rarely punished so severely.
The decision undoubtedly added more suspense and drama to the game. Zhou Qi had scored 11 points and contributed seven rebounds before being sent off, which had a significant impact on the interior strength of the Guangdong team.
After Zhou Qi was ejected from the field, the morale of the Guangsha team was greatly boosted, and they immediately seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack. In the case of the opponent's lineup being hit hard, the Guangsha team gained an absolute advantage inside, and even scored a few attacks. The atmosphere at the scene was also reversed, and the originally suppressed Guangsha fans began to shout and cheer for the team.
On the other side, the Guangdong team fell into a brief chaos. Without their main center, they obviously lack interior support on the offensive end, and there are many holes on the defensive end. The coaching staff had to make last-minute adjustments to allow other interior players to fill the void as much as possible. But after all, the strength is limited, and the advantages of the Guangdong team were soon gradually eroded by the Guangsha team.
The Guangsha team defeated the Guangdong team with a score of 109-102 and won a big victory. After the game, both coaches and players expressed their views on the controversial decision. The coach of the Guangdong team bluntly criticized the referee's decision, believing that it seriously affected the fairness of the game. The Guangsha team was overjoyed with the victory, but also expressed their understanding of Zhou Qi's situation and hoped that he could learn from this lesson.
The match also sparked heated discussions on social media. Many netizens believe that it is a pity that Zhou Qi, as a national player, lost his mind at such a critical moment, and he should pay the price for his impulsive behavior. But there were also those who applauded him, praised him for his fighting spirit on the field, and called on everyone to look at the incident with a more tolerant attitude.
Coincidentally, after the game, many fans chanted "Hu Jinqiu is a pity" at the scene. This sentence means that the internal strength of the Guangsha team has also been affected by Zhou Qi's departure, thus missing the opportunity to play its advantages to the end. This reflects the fact that despite the rivalry between the two sides in this match, the fans still have a genuine admiration for the highly skilled players.
This incident has once again raised questions about the level of referees and the standard of punishment. Some senior commentators believe that the referee was a bit too arbitrary in making such a harsh decision in this situation. They called for the establishment of more scientific and reasonable standards for punishment to avoid imbalance in punishment.
It was also pointed out that this incident reflects the need to strengthen the training of the current referee team. Due to the lack of systematic professional training, many referees often have a certain degree of subjectivity and arbitrariness in their decisions when facing difficult situations. In order to improve the professional level of referees, it is necessary to increase the training of them, so that they have a more thorough understanding and grasp of the rules.
Others have analyzed the incident from another angle. In their view, this reflects the lack of clarity and perfection in some aspects of the existing rules. For example, for the definition of "serious foul", the existing rules describe too general and principled, and many details cannot be well circumvented. It is necessary to revise and improve the rules to make them more realistic and provide a clearer basis for adjudication and law enforcement.
After this incident, Zhou Qi is likely to face a ban for the next match. As is customary, if a player is ejected, there will be an automatic suspension for the next match as punishment. This will undoubtedly have a certain impact on the Guangdong team's subsequent results.
This incident has once again triggered people's reflection on the rules of basketball and the level of referees. As a mass sport, the fairness and credibility of basketball games are crucial. Only by establishing a scientific and reasonable rule system and cultivating a high-level referee team can we truly maintain the fairness of the game and win the trust and support of the fans.