“I just fell on my face for no reason,” Kobe Bryant said. “I’m a klutz.” This in response to an obvious missed tripping call. Upon replay, it became arguably certain that the Nuggets’ Dahntay Jones intentionally tripped LA’s biggest superstar.
After the game, Lakers coach Phil Jackson complained about the poor refereeing that we’ve seen in these playoffs. It seems, from most coverage, that we’ve experienced a higher than usual number of bad or missed calls this post season. Further, it seems like next-day-refereeing is becoming the standard method of making up for mistakes.
I can think of three missed calls that were huge right off the top of my head right now- The tripping of Kobe, Dwight Howard’s clean block on Lebron’s 3-pointer that was called a foul, and the missed call on the intentional foul on Carmelo Anthony that allowed him to drain a game-winning shot.
Then you have the league assessing flagrant 1’s and 2’s the day after as if it were making up for something by doing so. Is this the right way to handle a missed call? Do fans feel that the mistake was vindicated by simply assessing a meaningless label to it a day later? Lets face it- fines are useless to these athletes. They make far too much money for that to matter to them. Why bother setting the precedent for referees that they can miss a call when it counts only to have the league “make things right” the following day in the media.
Referees are human. They are going to miss calls. They are going to get riled up in emotion and make bad judgments (see Joey Crawford for proof). Consistency is all we can expect, and all we can hold them to. The league office is not holding the referees accountable for their mistakes- they’re simply coming in later and cleaning up after them.
If this continues — if the league continues to re-referee each game — why bother playing clean at all? If you can get away with playing dirty and still have your dirty play affect the outcome of the game, why stop? If the league is only going to assess fouls and flagrant 1/2’s after the outcome is determined, it teaches the lesson that you SHOULD play dirty if the ref’s don’t see it live.
Earlier today, Phil Jackson was fined for complaining about the the blown call in post-game interviews. This was announced alongside their decision to assess a flagrant 1 on Jones since the ref’s blew the call in-game.
Oh, David Stern (Stu Jackson, in this case)… how are fans supposed to take something like that?
Also of note: Andrew Bynum’s flagrant foul was downgraded to a normal foul after review by the league. Again, we have a case of an in-game call being reversed after the fact by the league office. Any chance the Lakers will get that lost posession back? Nope. Would that momentum have changed the outcome of the game? Who knows, but wouldn’t it have been nice to see?
Disclaimer to avoid the barrage of comments: Yes, the Lakers have gotten away with many fouls as well. I’m not saying “The Lakers lost because of the ref’s” in this- I’m saying basketball in general isn’t as fun to watch when things are this out of control.