There was no shortage of controversy during France’s Olympic basketball win over Japan.
First, Lakers forward Rui Hachimura was the recipient of a suspect ejection during Japan’s heartbreaking 94-90 loss to the host country on Tuesday.
During the fourth quarter, Hachimura fouled Rudy Gobert on a shot, and officials ruled that it was an “unsportsmanlike” foul.
Because it was Hachimura’s second unsportsmanlike foul of the game, he was ejected.
It is highly unlikely that this would have been ruled a flagrant foul in the NBA, but the Olympics are played with FIBA regulations.
It was not the only questionable call of the game.
With about 10 seconds remaining and France trailing by four points, Japan’s Yuki Kawamura was whistled for a dubious foul on France’s Matthew Strazel, who made a three-pointer and subsequent foul shot to tie the game.
That pushed the game to overtime, where Victor Wembanyama took over with eight of his 18 points to lead the French to victory.
Before he was ejected, Hachimura had 24 points on 10-16 field goal shooting.
Japan was down by two points with about eight-and-a-half minutes remaining at the time Hachimura was ejected.
Basketball fans were aghast over the officials’ call.
“An absolutely horrendous decision. Beyond absurd,” LakersNation host Trevor Lane wrote on X.
Lakers fan and Stratechery editor Daman Rangoola wrote, “You’ve gotta be kidding me on that Rui ejection.”
France was an enormous favorite in the game, with a 17.5-point spread before tipoff.
On the moneyline, France was about -3300 and Japan was +1500.
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In addition to Gobert, France’s team featured NBA players Wembanyama, Evan Fournier and Nicolas Batum.