Refs deciding the game

[Jimgolf]

I watched the Puerto Rico vs Angola mens's basketball game last night on the Spanish language station. It was a great game that went down to the wire. I don't recall ever seeing a game that had more calls that could easily have been called the other way. On almost every play after Angola took the lead there was significant contact by both the offense and the defense. The refs did a good job of keeping the situation under control. The only near incident was at the buzzer, when Santiago blocked the last shot attempt by Angola and hit the shooter on the follow-through, and the players stood toe-to-toe, but then ended up shaking hands and hugging each other.

It was a great game that was well refereed! Whenever I hear the old bromides that the refs shouldn't decide the game and let the players play, I'm going to refer to this game. The refs had to "decide the game", because the players probably would have maimed each other if the refs "just let them play".

[PS2Man]

Players always decide games. Officials just call what the players do.

[Adam]

It's all semantics anyway. People only cry about the refs deciding the game when the refs make a call against their team. If the ref holds the whistle on a call they think should go for their team, then he's either incompetent or scared. If he blows the whistle and it helps their team, it was a great call.

It's so overused it's effectively meaningless now anyway. Kinda like grandma sitting behind the basket yelling, "Three seconds!"