As a former high school basketball referee, it has been pounded into my brain that no game should ever end on a whistle. “The best ref is an invisible one,” my Nevada game assignor used to tell me. “Let them play, and let them win or lose on their own.”
I actually watched Game Four of the Western Conference finals between the Lakers and the Spurs the other night. Surprising I know, seeing as how the OSG spend most of our time ragging on how bad the sport is (Hey, I have 300 channels, and nothing else was on at the time).
Sure, I watched the Spurs let a 7-point lead slide away into magic nowhere during the last 50 seconds or so of the game. Offense wins games; defense wins championships.
As a referee, when calling a foul you look at whether or not the shooter was impeded from making a shot. You have to make that call in a split-second. I cannot blame Joey Crawford, Joe Forte and Mark Wunderlich – at all. Until you’ve had a whistle in your mouth during a pressure situation, you have no idea how difficult the job is.
It was Crawford’s call, and his whistle was silent. In my opinion, Barry did not sell the foul enough. Kobe Bryant would have pulled out a Ric Flair flop. Barry just went up and took the off-balance shot. In my humble opinion, Crawford did not want to put a free throw shooter on the line with virtually no time left – possibly sending the game into overtime (FYI, Barry is a 95% free throw shooter on the year).
Not that Crawford ignored a sure foul – he’s been around too long to do that. He, in my opinion, just looked at the situation and deemed in not "enough" of a foul to warrant ending the game on a whistle. I’m sure if Fisher would have knocked Barry down and back across the half-court line, Crawford would have blown the whistle three ways from Sunday.
See, people all over the country – Spurs’ fans, sports radio announcers, troublemakers – are saying the NBA screwed up again. After the Tim Donaghy scandal, people are looking at referees with a microscope. If Crawford would have called that foul, he would have pissed off all the Laker fans for a ticky-tack foul. Damned if you do, and all that.
Even looking at the replay – yes, I will admit there was some contact – but I agree that there was not enough of a shot adjustment to warrant a foul call. Now, the NBA had to go make the situation a lot worse by saying the Spurs got screwed. Who the hell do they think they are? Leaving Crawford out on a limb to hang high and dry – that’s bullsh*t in my opinion. Support your longtime, SOLID referee. Don’t backstab him.
The NBA should have kept their damn mouths closed. They had no right to get into the woods and kick the dead skunk. All they did was stir up one damn bad smell. What they should have done was come out and said, “You know, it’s a tough call. He made it, the game’s over, we have three more to play.”
Of course, when has the No Brains Association EVER made the right decision?
I’m not usually this deep, just deep in it. Trust me.
No comments:
Post a Comment