Out of Bounds - Tough Call
 

In the last minute of the LA/Orlando game 2, Kobe drove to the basket and the ball was deflected by an Orlando player. An official (McCutchen I think) indicated that the ball hit Kobe's leg before going out of bounds. The replay showed that it clearly did not.

It seems that the official either guessed or just missed it. In such a situation the ideal would be to indiscretely look for help from a partner or call what was definitely seen -- in this case ball to LA. A last case resort if there was no clue would be to go to the jump ball. Any other ideas on how to better handle a play like this before or after the play.

By the way, out of bounds is my current "this is the most difficult play in officiating". When you get it wrong, it can be very obvious and very ugly.

I personally thought it clipped kobe and went off him but if we are just talking about how to handle an OOB sitch there should be nothing discrete about it. You should hit your whistle and yell to your partner and ask em what he/she has. If they know they should respond by hitting their whistle and and state color and direction. If the 2nd doesn't know then he/she should hit their whistle and ask the third for help just in case they actually got a look at it and if he/she knows they should do as stated above and if they then they should rule it a jump ball. To me, if you try to act sly about asking for help then it looks dumb instead of showing everyone that you have no idea who it went off of and your being selfless in your endeavor to get the play right. Jmo

Did we see the same play? My look at the replay showed space between ball and Kobe after the deflection. It does go to show that obvious is in the eye of the beholder.

With regard to being discrete, I don't think one approach fits all situations. Most times that I blow the whistle I am quickly and discretely looking for my partner. If I have no clue on an out of bounds play, discrete and quick goes out the window. There are gradations in between.

I will watch it again sometime, i didn't get a great look at the replay as i was watching in a sports bar and my head was up and down and we didn't have HD TVs at that, so you could be right.

He had a poor angle and likely guessed. He was wrong. As you note that is crystal clear from the video replay.
The only thing that could happen on such an OOB play is for a partner to come offer help, but that really isn't possible when an official gesticulates and makes such a demonstrative call. (Think Hightower)
I believe that Monty was working his first ever game in the NBA Finals. He won't be happy when he sees the replay of that decision.

You can ignore what btaylor wrote. His statement is so grossly wrong regarding the facts of this play that it is laughable.

In my honest and humble opinion, this is one of the biggest problems in officiating. The call was wrong and to say anything else means you must have watched a different broadcast than the rest of us. It wasn't something they showed over and over again because it was clearly a wrong call. Back to the biggest problem: what is so wrong with being wrong? Some are saying the officiating is horrible in the NBA this post-season. I have talked to people close to the game who say they are being consistent, but everyone misses plays. I was told we could watch a game and they would tell me what the official was looking for on that particular play. That is just a bunch of semantics!

It just isn't in the NBA - I know some officials who always say they had a good/great game. It just doesn't happen that way.

The bottom line: there have been more missed plays in the NBA this post-season which leads the casual fan (this has been all my nephew has been saying) to say the officiating is horrible. Also, the commercials with the Lakers/Cavs/Kobe/LeBron don't help people believe otherwise. Stern comes off looking like the muppet master.

yeah you are right, kobe didn't knock it out off his leg.

That's awesome!!!


http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra.../funnypost.gif