Taking a page out of young George Washington’s book, the NBA snitched on itself for a missed traveling violation that should’ve been called on Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook late in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals versus the Golden State Warriors last night. Occurring with the Thunder leading by three, the no-call prevented the Thunder from ever having a genuine chance of tying the game in the closing seconds, thus falling to OKC 108-102 as a result.
While Westbrook and the Thunder were fantastic in the second half, overcoming a 13-point halftime deficit, the missed traveling call skewed the outcome. Of course, NBA referees are known for conveniently turning a blind eye to travels, but Westbrook blatantly slid his pivot foot right in front of referee Monty McCutchen while attempting to halt and call a timeout. Stunningly, McCutchen ignored the violation and granted Westbrook the timeout, causing his Twitter mentions to halt and catch fire.
To make matters worse for McCutchen, as well as the NBA’s reputation, the flagrant no-call occurred a few feet from Golden State head coach Steve Kerr, who, while usually mild-mannered, threw a mini-temper tantrum in disbelief. The incident unfolded with a little under 20 seconds to play. Therefore, had the walk been called, the Warriors and their bevy of three-point shooters would have had plenty of time to potentially tie up the game and possibly send it into overtime.
As for the NBA publicly, yet indirectly, shaming McCutchen, NBA senior vice president of replay and referee operations (yes, that’s evidently a thing) Joe Borgia acknowledged after the game, while being interviewed on NBA TV, that a travel should indeed have been called. Though he technically defended McCutchen for blowing the call, Borgia still surreptitiously admitted that the call was…you know…blown.
“The officials, no one could get in a good position to see him drag that pivot foot,” NBA senior vice president of replay and referee operations Joe Borgia said in a postgame interview on NBA TV. “It’s an unfortunate miss, but so much going on in the play, the speed of it, and officiating is about getting angles and sometimes you just can’t get them, and they did not get a great angle on that play.”
A classic example of too little, too late, Borgia’s admission was admirably honest but a little unsettling nonetheless.
While the NFL bigwigs pride themselves in never admitting they’ve done something wrong, the NBA executives take the moral high ground approach to the max, particularly with regard to their referees. The two-minute reports that the NBA began releasing last year that basically grade the referees’ performances in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, as well as entire overtime periods, of close games are interesting, yet kind of pointless. In fact, they have drawn the ire of several head coaches recently, and, in the case of Borgia’s mea culpa on live television, Kerr will likely be the next coach to publicly air his grievances regarding the NBA’s “I cannot tell a lie./I cannot make a mistake and pretend like it didn’t happen.” approach.
The entire practice of pointing out a referee’s wrongdoings at the end of a close game is bemusing. It makes a bit of a mockery of one of the world’s most prominent professional sports leagues and clearly irritates the coaches and players that make it up. Human error is part of the game; that’s why every major professional sports organization has expanded its replay parameters in recent years. However, the NBA seems to be making its instant replay progression moot by constantly pointing out the faults of the league’s referees.
Of course, traveling isn’t reviewable, and, needless to say, there are far more blatant traveling violations than Westbrook’s that go uncalled throughout each and every NBA game. But couldn’t Borgia have merely said, “Traveling of that ilk, where the player possibly moved his pivot foot, is a judgment call on behalf of the nearest referee. Clearly, Monty didn’t feel that it warranted a traveling violation to be called.” See? Easy as pie. Very political. No snitching. It doesn’t hurt Borgia’s credibility. Borgia stays impartial and thus doesn’t offend anybody. Now, because Borgia, who must’ve recently rented Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar from Redbox, just had to point out McCutchen’s mistake, the entire series (and potentially NBA history) is skewed.
[ESPN]
