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In the interest of a little more context, this was a very ugly game. The home team racked up something like 38 fouls, and 95% of them were garbage - reaches, over-agressive play, stupid crap. A T was called on a player for complaining about calls, and certainly a couple more could have (should have?) been called. The game was generally one of those deals where you are doing your best to just manage the train wreck. Home team lost 40-80.
The reason the comment bothered me is that the attitude of the assistant was so clearly reflected in his players. They were getting their asses kicked, and the 40 point lead was not because they could not play defense, could not make a pass, and lacked fundamentals, but because the officials were screwing them. Just look at that foul count! We won't call fouls on the other team, and won't "let them just play" either.
To me, this assistant, sitting right next to his players, blaming this train wreck on the cheating officials was pretty much the casebook example of grossly poor sportsmanship and refusal to take any responsibility for their own actions.
All this, of course, is in hindsight. In the moment, I don't think I would have thought this through, and likely would have done the same thing as my partner.
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