[ripian]

***Disclaimer: I am not a Lakers or Kings fan, I'm a fan of basketball and an official for 11 years.***

The no call on Kobe...

I just happened to be at a camp when game 6 was played so there was much discussion on this.

Here's my point of view (and the conclusion we came up with).

Game situation for those who don't remember, under 20 seconds left and Lakers up by 3. Lakers to inbound the ball and Bibby is matched up with Kobe at the foul line. Bibby is "chested" up with Kobe and did anyone else notice that Bibby's right arm was extended out of his vertical cylinder and holding Kobe's left hip?

When Kobe made his move to get open he moved to his left leading with his right arm which just happened to catch Bibby in the face. Now why did it catch Bibby in the face? Because Bibby was too close to Kobe and never established a legal guarding position. Do I feel bad that Bibby got popped in the nose. Of course I do. Do I think that a foul should of been called on Kobe? Nope.

Our conclusion from the camp was this... it was a good no call and if there was a call to be made it should of gone against Bibby for the hold.

Assume for the moment that the call would of been made on Kobe. Now there is an away from the ball foul where the penalty is 1 shot (taken by any shooter) and the ball out of bounds. Assume again that the Kings convert on the the FT and then work the ball for the last shot and hit a miracle 3 to win the game. If that was the case, the call made altered the outcome of the game and instead of discussing the no call on Kobe the discussion would be on how that call should of never been made in the last 20 seconds and how the results of the game were detremined by the blow of a whistle and a controversial yet correct call.

I find it funny how nobody ever looks at the the other side of the coin. Do things get missed? Yes. Do sports officials go out and alter the outcome of the game? No. Do fans have a right to voice their opinion? Sure, but those who do should at least try and educate themselves to as what they want to have an opinion about.

What the bottom line comes to is this... Preception. If a person's (casual observer, fan, player, official etc...) view that the call was bad and should of been the other way around, I won't argue that because it's your point of view. I can explain the facts but unless you want to change your view on the issue, I won't worry about changing your preception. I think sports official's have too much stress in their lives to worry about the fan is the nose-bleeds and their opinion.

And on that note, I'd just like to point out that NBA official's are the best in the world and nobody is more critical of them then themselves. NBA official's are constently reviewing game film and evaulating themselves. They travel with High-8 machines and laptops, they do game reports on every game. How many other professions in the world do we put ourselves under the microscope like that. I can't think of many.

Peace