Thursday, April 08, 2010
Crying Foul
On Tuesday, the Utah Jazz beat the Oklahoma City Thunder (the Zombie Sonics) by one point in overtime. As time was expiring in overtime, Kevin Durant of the Thunder launched a three-point shot and C.J. Miles of the Jazz put his hand up to block the shot. It looked like Miles got a piece of Durant's arm, but no foul was called. The ball fell harmlessly to the floor. Game over.
Wednesday, the NBA issued a statement saying that the referee messed up and should have called a foul on Miles. That would have meant that Durant, an excellent free-throw shooter, would have received three free throws and OKC probably would have won the game.
I don't understand why the NBA issued the statement. What possible good could come from the league saying, "Sorry, this call was wrong."? There are a lot of botched calls in every game every night. There were certainly other botched calls in this particular game that could have swung it either way (it was, after all, an overtime game, so even one additional free throw made in regulation by either team would have won it for them, or one fewer would have lost it). Do the league bigwigs think the statement will make Durant and the Thunder okay with the fact that they had a loss when they could have/should have had a win? "Oh, well, since the NBA recognizes it really was a foul, the fact that this loss drops us a spot or two in the playoff seedings really doesn't matter," they say. Was it intended to send a message to referees - sort of like a training exercise? If that's the case, why was it made public, and not just conveyed to the refs? Did they want to make the Jazz and Miles feel bad?
The only possible results from releasing the statement that I can see are: 1) it makes the Thunder angrier, 2) it de-legitimizes the playoff seeding of both the Jazz and the Thunder, and 3) it reduces everyone's - the players', the coaches', the fans', and the refs' - confidence in the refs' ability to get calls right. All three of those results are bad.
So even though it really was a foul, the NBA should have kept its mouth shut. Crying foul in this instance does nobody any good, and it does a lot of people a lot of harm.
Wednesday, the NBA issued a statement saying that the referee messed up and should have called a foul on Miles. That would have meant that Durant, an excellent free-throw shooter, would have received three free throws and OKC probably would have won the game.
I don't understand why the NBA issued the statement. What possible good could come from the league saying, "Sorry, this call was wrong."? There are a lot of botched calls in every game every night. There were certainly other botched calls in this particular game that could have swung it either way (it was, after all, an overtime game, so even one additional free throw made in regulation by either team would have won it for them, or one fewer would have lost it). Do the league bigwigs think the statement will make Durant and the Thunder okay with the fact that they had a loss when they could have/should have had a win? "Oh, well, since the NBA recognizes it really was a foul, the fact that this loss drops us a spot or two in the playoff seedings really doesn't matter," they say. Was it intended to send a message to referees - sort of like a training exercise? If that's the case, why was it made public, and not just conveyed to the refs? Did they want to make the Jazz and Miles feel bad?
The only possible results from releasing the statement that I can see are: 1) it makes the Thunder angrier, 2) it de-legitimizes the playoff seeding of both the Jazz and the Thunder, and 3) it reduces everyone's - the players', the coaches', the fans', and the refs' - confidence in the refs' ability to get calls right. All three of those results are bad.
So even though it really was a foul, the NBA should have kept its mouth shut. Crying foul in this instance does nobody any good, and it does a lot of people a lot of harm.
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