There are a few things you don’t expect in a Knicks-Pacers playoff game. Like Reggie Miller siding with New York. Or four fouls called on the Knicks in twelve seconds. The officiating in the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals has taken center stage now. Even before Game 4, the Knicks’ head coach, Tom Thibodeau, warned the refs about landing Jalen Brunson in foul trouble.

“I don’t care what the officiating is saying, I’ve studied this league a long time, I know what a charge looks like,” Thibodeau said after Brunson picked up four fouls in the first half of Game 3. Well, this was not the first time refs targeted Brunson in a crucial game. Even in Game 1 and Game 2 against the Pacers, the Knicks’ guard was fouled five times each, and fouled out in Game 5 against the Celtics in the previous round.

Come Game 4, and nothing changes, because no refs heard Thibodeau’s appeal. Instead, the refs continued their mission against New York in Game 4. It wasn’t just about a single call or a missed travel. This was the kind of game that left fans on both sides questioning reality. Officiating was so bad that a Pacers legend had to take a stand for New York. The kind that pushed a Reggie Miller to basically throw up his hands on live television and go, “Yeah… that was bad.”

Will Parkinson, an NFL analyst, was one of the many to report Miller’s take on the whole officiating in Game 4. “Refs are so bad even Reggie Miller admitting the Knicks are getting shafted,” he wrote.

Well, when the king of MSG trolling is sympathizing with Knicks fans? Let’s just say something’s gone off the rails. And the officials? They’ll be under a microscope the size of Times Square because if Reggie Miller is waving the white flag with New York, then something bigger is brewing in this rivalry. Something the league has to answer for.

Reggie Miller & the Knicks’ fans, an unlikely alliance in the making?

This wasn’t trolling, nor performative neutrality. This was the rare moment where sports tribalism broke down because the officiating was that egregious. One fan said it best: “The calls against the Knicks have broken Reggie Miller.” Broken. The very man whose playoff legacy was forged in destroying the Knicks’ dreams, cracked by a night of chaos and whistles. Another user posted, “When Reggie Miller is agreeing with us… there’s an issue. I feel like I’m literally being intentionally gaslit.”

What triggered all this? How about four fouls called on the Knicks in twelve seconds? Twelve. That’s not basketball, that’s a stat line from an alternate dimension. “GIVE US A CHANCE,” one fan begged on X (formerly Twitter), echoing the sentiment of a fanbase feeling robbed, and not just beaten. And it didn’t stop there. Another post, now viral, read: “This officiating is so egregiously disrespectful to the game.” No name, no team bias. Just a raw reaction to what looked like a meltdown in refereeing standards on one of the NBA’s biggest stages.

Even neutral fans chimed in, wondering aloud how a nationally televised playoff game with two marquee franchises had turned into a three-hour officiating debacle. Was it the pressure of the moment? An off-night for the crew? Or something deeper, like a systemic officiating issue the league has danced around for years?

And yet, no official statement has come from the NBA. No clarification. Just a building storm, a Knicks fanbase boiling over, and Reggie Miller, somehow, impossibly… nodding in agreement. And if Game 4 looked rigged to fans, what does that mean for Game 5 in the Garden? At this point, Knicks supporters don’t just want a win. They want accountability.

Game 5 is looming. 3-1 series. Spotlight is hotter than ever, and for the league, this isn’t just a call to clean up the whistles. It’s a warning. Because when both fanbases and a Pacers legend are united in frustration, something’s gone fundamentally wrong. This is no longer just Knicks vs. Pacers. This is Knicks + Reggie + fans vs. the whistle!