No Timeouts - end of the game

[Scrapper1]

Not sure I should resurrect this old thread, but I read something recently that related directly to the original topic. I'm reading a book on "Great NBA Finishes", games that had great comebacks or unusual endings. One of the games was Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals. This was the Suns/Celtics triple OT game. Here's why I'm posting about it:

With the score tied at 95 [near the end of the 4th quarter] (Perry and Havlicek free throws), Dave Cowens deflected a Suns inbounds pass and Paul Silas tried to call for a timeout, unaware the Celtics had none left. Referee Richie Powers would not acknowledge the request. If he had, the Suns would have been shooting a potential game-winning technical foul.

It was a non-call that was still stuck in the Suns' craw months, years, even decades later.

"About two weeks later, a local Phoenix golf pro named Joe Porter was playing in the Westchester Classic," reports Jerry Colangelo, then the general manager and later the team's CEO. "He saw Richie Powers at the bar and he asked him why he didn't call that timeout. He said that Richie said, 'I didn't want Boston to lose like that.' If you ask me do I think he meant 'I didn't want Boston to lose like,' or '[I didn't want] anyone to lose like that,' I'll say the latter."

Coach John MacLeod was not nearly so charitable. What do I think he meant?" he inquires. "BOSTON! He didn't want Boston to lose. I'm still angry."

I just thought this was interesting to see both sides. Here's an NBA referee who thought he was helping the game, the opposing team thought the game was taken away from them. Not sure if anyone will find it interesting, but it relates directly to the thread, and many of us didn't actually see that game and remember it.

That entire passage is quoted from a Boston Globe report by Bob Ryan, just to credit the original author.