We blew it- NBA admits referees errored in Denver-Dallas game
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Bill Jempty | Sunday, May 10, 2009 |
The non-call happened on a possible game-winning 3-pointer as time ran out yesterday. From AP-
The NBA admitted officials were wrong when they didn’t call an intentional foul the Dallas Mavericks were trying to commit before Denver’s Carmelo Anthony made a game-winning 3-pointer Saturday.
Dallas had a two-point lead and a foul to give when Denver inbounded the ball with less than 8 seconds left. Antoine Wright was clearly trying to foul Anthony, and bumped him twice.
But the whistle never blew and Anthony swished a 3-pointer from in front of the Dallas bench with a second left that gave the Nuggets a 106-105 victory and a 3-0 series lead.
“At the end of the Dallas-Denver game this evening, the officials missed an intentional foul committed by Antoine Wright on Carmelo Anthony, just prior to Anthony’s three-point basket,” Joel Litvin, NBA president of league and basketball operations, said in a statement issued by the league about two hours after the game.
In the aftermath of the Tim Donaghy scandal, the NBA has taken to admitting to when referees blow a call. Remember Donaghy accused two other referees of fixing a 2002 playoff game.
Honestly, the NBA if it wanted to totally come clean, would have a do over from where the foul took place. A game with much at stake was altered by what happened. Yes such an action is unprecedented, but then it would truly show the NBA isn’t fixing games like Donaghy accused them of doing.
Here is a You tube video of shot in question.
It is pretty clear to me that Wright fouled Anthony, not once but twice.
What was the reaction of the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban?
“It’s a shame the game had to come down to this, but that’s the way it goes in the NBA sometimes,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in an e-mail to The Associated Press after the league’s statement.
In light of how the league fines anyone who criticizes officials, even when justified, Cuban’s public self control is not unexpected. Privately I bet he threw a fit.
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