NBA teams
J.A. Adande, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

Controversial calls live on through NBA's last two minute reports

NBA, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs

When it comes to officiating, the NBA has-half stepped to the middle -- to the satisfaction of no one.

By publicly hitting its officials with a #wellactually through its last two minutes reports, the NBA keeps the focus on officiating for an extra news cycle and makes the referees appear worse than they are.

And it doesn't accomplish anything.

If the NBA wanted the officiating reports to have weight, it would allow for games to be replayed when end-of-game calls are determined to be erroneous. And that would be too complicated.

Only games involving a scoring error or misinterpretation of the rules -- rather than an incorrect call -- are currently eligible for a do-over. (The last time it happened was when the Miami Heat successfully protested a January 2008, game in which Shaquille O'Neal was incorrectly disqualified with a sixth personal foul when he actually had five fouls. The final 51.9 seconds of overtime in their game against the Atlanta Hawks were replayed at a later date).

But if there's no opportunity to amend the mistake of a blown call (or non-call), no second chance for the offended team, what's the point of acknowledging them? The league makes the last two minute reports public for the sake of transparency and accountability. Those are nice nouns where what fans really want to see are verbs.

As in what action can take place to correct them?

It wouldn't be feasible to come back and re-do the end of playoff games, when the series might be scheduled to move on to the next city or the arena is already booked for other events. And how late in the game would be within the window for a replay? The final 10 seconds? Or 30 seconds? A minute?

If the extreme doesn't work, then we're left with the unsatisfying. Getting everything right in real time in the course of an NBA game is an impossible task. And I'd argue they shouldn't get everything right according to the book.

Officials should be allowed some leeway to assess impact in addition to violation. If every violation were called the, games would last five hours. And if officials strictly adhered to the rules at the end of games, we wouldn't have two of our 60 Greatest NBA Playoff Vines: Reggie Miller's shove-and-go against Michael Jordan and MJ paying it forward against Bryon Russell.

If those plays happened today, they'd be accompanied by a tsk-tsking in the next day's last two minute reports. Meanwhile, it will be a long wait before we ever have a list of 60 greatest last two minute reports.

After being conditioned to leave the outcome of games to players, officials now have to weigh the inevitable public correction. The most significant missed call of these playoffs -- yes, even more than the cornucopia of misses at the end of Spurs-Thunder Game 2 -- was the game-winning shot by Houston's James Harden against Golden State in Game 3 of the first round. It should have been an offensive foul for shoving Andre Iguodala, the NBA determined upon review, and Golden State should have had the ball with the lead with 2 seconds left and a chance to go up 3-0.

Notice you didn't hear much outrage from Iguodala and the Warriors at the time. They understand those calls don't often get made. You also didn't hear support for making all such calls reviewable with instant replay.

Back to Spurs-Thunder Game 2, where the focus on the missed offensive foul by Oklahoma City's Dion Waiters on the inbounds pass distracted from the more critical missed call: Serge Ibaka's foul during LaMarcus Aldridge's attempt to put back Patty Mills' missed 3-pointer.

That was the one that truly denied the Spurs a chance to score. Then again, the whole chaotic sequence would have been avoided if the officials caught Manu Ginobili crossing the inbound border to begin with. Or maybe the score would have been out of reach if the officials called any of the three previous violations on the Spurs that turned up in the last two minute report.

The Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade called the day-after acknowledgements "pointless" a few days after he was the subject of a controversial play in the final seconds of the Heat's Game 5 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

I have yet to hear a coach celebrate any report that had retroactively validated his point (and coaches love to be right).

Ironically, the only celebrating over a last two minute report was from the officials' union Twitter account, which did-an-in-your-face style tag of Wade's wife, Gabrielle Union, when the report countered her and many fans' vociferous protests that Wade had been fouled at the end of a game.

Officials would rather not be a part of the story at all. When I work the sidelines at games I always greet the officials during warmups, then tell them I hope I won't need to speak to them again for the rest of the night. They all agree with the sentiment.

An essential part of sports -- and especially the playoffs -- are about moving on. The last two minute reports don't allow for that.

The Thunder moved on in impressive fashion after the Spurs pounded them in Game 1. That should have been the story. Instead the officials became the story. And then the next day's story after the report was released.

Forced to relive, without the chance to rectify. It's not working out for anybody.

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