NBA upholds protest requiring replay

[warpus]

Ok, first of all, I do not follow basketball at all. This link was sent to me by a fellow soccer fan, in a "can you imagine this happening in the Premiership??" type message.

linky

ATLANTA (AP) -- For the first time since 1982, the NBA is sending two teams back to the court for a do-over.

The Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat must replay the final 51.9 seconds of their game last month because the official scorer ruled incorrectly that Shaquille O'Neal fouled out, the league said Friday.

Don't referees make mistakes all the time? Isn't this a part of the game?

The Hawks also were fined $50,000, with Stern ruling the team was "grossly negligent" in failing to address the mistake.

Ok.. Now.. It's the referee that made the mistake, right? Why is the team being punished?

Do referees ever change their decision, after a complaint from a player? This never ever happens in soccer. In fact, if you protest a referee's decision too strongly, you will get a yellow card. If you swear, you might get a red.

So why would the winning team complain to the referee about the bad decision? Do teams regularly protest calls that go their way, in the NBA?

Someone help me make sense of all of this please.

 

[Azale]

This hasnt happened since 1982...only third time ever in NBA history. I dunno all the reasons, but I know its not very common.

 

[jonatas]

Part of me thinks this has to do with a lot of the heat Stern has taken over the last season, with a crooked ref (Toronto got eliminated in a game seven by a basket refereed by this guy ) and controversial decisions (Amare's suspension). I think the NBA's credibility, which was never exactly high, took a real hit. There seems to have always been extremely poor calls and mistakes, to the point where the game doesn't seem real at times. I think before last season, Stern would have never even contemplated this. For example, last year there actually was a scoring error in a Toronto game which could have changed the outcome, but nothing was done. But again I don't really know the details of the situation.

 

[Red Door]

I still am trying to figure out why the Hawks were fined for this...

 

[civverguy]

Well refs do change their decisions, but it's rare. I would never think this would happen because a lot of players or coaches get hit with technicals if they complain or do something like this. And I don't understand why the Hawks were fined. What's wrong with David Stern these days?

 

[shortguy]

As the home team, perhaps they're responsible for the official scoring of the game, and thus they should have caught the mistake.

 

[jonatas]

What's wrong with David Stern these days?

David Stern really lost it last year, starting with the synthetic leather basketballs which he introduced and then replaced because everyone started complaining about the quality + he was outed for only having made the initial change because the wife of the Houston Rockets owner is a member of PETA or something stupid

It only got worse after this for him, with one of the worst TV ratings for the playoffs ever, a crucial and controversial league office suspension and a crooked ref who really hurt the NBA's credibility. There were already complaints about NBA refereeing with the previous finals and the insane amount of free throw attempts Dwayne Wade was getting, but the last playoffs turned out to be really bad. He probably had the best reputation of all commissioners but he totally lost it now and I think he realizes it.