Yeah, Derek Fisher landed on Brent Barry just before Barry hoisted a hopeless three-pointer at the buzzer in the lakers’ 91-89 victory.
Should Fisher have been called for a foul?
I know this argument is two days old now, but I’m going to weigh in.
We need to put the call in the perspective of the game, and take into account what we know about the NBA, the playoffs and the men who officiate those games.
1. Refs almost never will make a game-turning call in the final seconds of a tight playoffs game. They just don’t. Maybe it’s fear of being wrong, maybe the league somehow subtly gets the word out to the refs: “Don’t become the story.” But they just don’t. Go back and look at Michael Jordan throwing Bryon Russell to the ground at the end of that 1998 playoffs game. Just before Jordan made the decisive shot. That’s how it works.
2. Refs don’t make huge, critical calls in favor of a second-tier player like Brent Barry. That also isn’t something you find in the rule book. But it also is something else we know.
3. When the play was made, Kobe Bryant had taken 29 shots — but none from the free-throw line. Zero. That’s almost impossible to do. Twenty-nine shots, and not once was he touched? The officials may not have known that exact stat, but don’t be surprised if they did know that Phil Jackson had been complaining about them on national TV after the first quarter, and they were aware that San Antonio had been to the line more often than had the Lakers. They may even have been worried that Fisher’s shot with about five seconds to play actually had hit the rim before it went out of bounds off Robert Horry — meaning the Lakers should have been inbounding the ball with a new shot clock, forcing the Spurs to foul
That is, the refs may have sensed they “owed” the Lakers a call.
So, no, it was not a foul. Not in the NBA we know. Which is called in a sort of elastic way, for better or worse.
It was gratifying to see Gregg Popovich and Barry both say the non-call was accurate. As did Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant — but we know how they saw it.
The whole thing doesn’t fall under the heading of “NBA conspiracy” — though fans of small-market teams certainly will say it.
It does, however, perfectly fit the pattern of behavior in NBA games, and how its officials don’t quite stick with the rulebook in the waning moments of playoffs games. That’s why it was a good non-call.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Damian // May 30, 2008 at 7:03 AM
Apart from the view that most refs let teams play in the last minute, my view on the non-call was two-fold:
1) Had Barry gone straight up or jumped into Fish to create the contact while Fish was in the air, no doubt he gets a foul called. But because he tried to sidestep the contact, which thus became soft contact, maybe the refs thought that they would let the play go, thinking Barry had chosen his course of action and they felt they would let him roll with that. Kind of like the advantage rule in soccer — you are fouled but your actions suggest you don’t want the foul call and would rather continue to make your play.
2) A make-up call for A) the Lakers not getting the :24 reset after replay showed the ball hit the rim, then Horry, then rolled out of bounds. And B) for the Spurs getting a bucket on the Odom goaltending call on Parker’s layup in the last 20 secs. Replay showed it was a clean block and Odom got that ball before it hit the backboard.
Having said that, I have always respected the Spurs for the way they carry themselves and respect them even more for their postgame comments about the no-call.
The torch of the Western Conference, and soon NBA, has officially passed. The NBA baton has been relayed.
No Bynum, no Ariza, having to play awful, how-many-different-ways-can-I-possibly-screw-up-on-the-court Luke Walton (who is below Mbenga and Coby Karl on my pecking order), no problem.
2 Tom Meschery // May 30, 2008 at 5:47 PM
I have sort of a by-the-book interpretation of rules, maybe stemming from not playing hoops beyond ninth grade.
To me, barry was fouled. The whistle should have been blown as soon as contact was made.
Then again, there are a lot of unwritten rules in sports and i sorta get that. I was taught to put a hand on an offensive guy when playing defense to always know where he is. And to “fight through” screens on defense – that, is, shove the pick man out of the way. Both tactics are technically defensive fouls, but they’re not always called. .
In baseball, tags don’t actually have to be made as long as the glove is down before the baserunner arrives. Then there’s the whole phantom tagging of the base on DPs. Umps wink at that.
Anyway, i’d have called a foul on the Lakers, but that’s probably just me. It’s a foul in ninth-grade hoops, but not in the NBA in the finals seconds. As long as they are consistent in their following of unwritten rules, then so be it.
Leave a Comment