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Despite the fact that we know that the wrong decision was made on the last shot, I can't find a great deal of fault with the Trail official. (The LEAD is a whole different matter!)
I can cut him some slack because in a two-person crew, the Trail must be behind the play as the ball is being brought up the court and since the offensive is pushing it up fast due to there being only a few seconds left he doesn't have time to get a good angle on the ball hitting the pole above the backboard. He would need to be more in front of the team bench to have a quality look at that. Could he have continued his run and gotten down there? Maybe, but would most people? Probably not.
Instead he is almost straight on and probably can't tell if the ball is going straight up or hit the pole and came back a bit. Plus the gym wall behind the backboard is painted white and so it the pole. This lack of contrast doesn't help the official.
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