Well, Silver *did* promise transparency... (Video)
 

NBA: Officials missed foul call in Blazers-Rockets game
Official release
Posted Apr 21, 2014 4:40 PM
NEW YORK -- Rod Thorn, NBA President, Basketball Operations, issued the following statement Monday regarding a play late in the fourth quarter of the Portland Trail Blazers' 122-120 win over the Houston Rockets on April 20, at Toyota Center:

"After video review by the league office, we have determined that the officials were incorrect in assessing a foul to the Rockets' Dwight Howard with 10.8 seconds remaining in overtime. The foul should have been called on the Blazers' Joel Freeland and Howard should have been awarded two free throws."

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Does this mean they got every other decision correct ???

Is Silver trying to win a PR battle with the public......I've got no problem with the league acknowledging mistakes but will it just be plays under a minute in the 4th
quarter or overtime ???

I can see why Foster thought Howard was at fault. You'll notice Foster mark the three-pointer -- which is not his play. He then looks at the Howard/Freeland matchup. Pause the video at 6 seconds. While paused it certainly looks like Howard is holding Freeland. At this point however Freeland already had Howard wrapped up and Howard was just trying to get free. I don't think Foster saw the beginning of the play, just the section of the play that looks like Howard is holding. I think this goes to show how important it is to see the whole play.

Not the only missed call in that game...for example, they called a foul on Lopez (I think) against Howard, when Howard clearly used the ball to shove Lopez away and that was the only contact between the two. The difference is that the Rockets submitted the foul called against Howard to the League for review...so the League reviewed it and issued their statement.

I think you have a personal agenda....LOL

It doesn't sit well with me to see all these statements about refs getting calls wrong. Why not speak with the refs about it and leave it at that? Why call them out in public?

I'm ok with refs being interviewed after games, and questioned about a call or non-call. Explain what they saw and all. But it doesn't seem right for the NBA to release such statements.

Not only that, but they make it sound like calls or non-calls late in the game mean more than the calls made the other 47 minutes. As if all that other work means nothing.

The trend seen in the NBA and NFL is increased transparency. This means admitting when their officials miss calls. It's part of the job description. There's no point in not commenting on some calls...especially when we have video, from 5 or 6 angles, showing that a call is missed. And let's not act like this is a regular occurrence from the league...with over 1230 games played this season, the NBA has released a statement like this probably less than 10 times this season.

And whether we like it or not, the call at the end of the game has more scrutiny and is more important than one missed in the 2nd quarter.

Edit*

Including the playoffs, the NBA has released 7 statements: six regarding a missed call at the end of the game or after review, and one regarding ejection that should not have occurred...that's for the entire regular season and the playoffs.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, 2 of those 6 "missed call" declarations were dubious. (T-Wolves 3-point shot; Draymond Green strip of CP3).

They need to pick their spots then. Many of the things they have commented on have been very marginal. If you are going to educate the public, do not pick plays that are very tough to see or that you need slow motion to judge. Use plays that were clearly missed and the Chris Paul play was not a slam dunk. I do not feel I would have called that in a JH game with no video. Transparancy is great, but you have to be smarter about it. Because every little play like that is going to be asked for a call. Then you will have stupid commentators that uneducate the public about what was a terrible call when you want something called. The NBA needs to work on their commentators more than they need to be transparant about these silly calls they decide to comment about.

Peace

Marginal in your eyes...apparently in the league office's eyes, illegal. That's their prerogative. My main point is statements from the league don't happen that often.

As far as commentators go, the I'm not even sure how you suggest the league do to work on their commentators as they have no power over them.

I do not disagree that the League thinks this is a foul. But it is debatable at best when others they are trying to be transparent with see the play. We are not uneducated eyes as officials. If you are going to come out with that few times, they could have passed on commenting publicly about this play. Maybe you keep that in-house and comment to the parties involved, including the teams. I just think the league has to be careful of what they make public.

The NFL has access to the TV broadcasts and try to educate the commentators over their league. After all they do have some power, because they give them the contracts. They could always make that apart of the contract to have access and educate the commentators when they say something totally incorrect. You do not have to say you do not want them to be critical, but you could give them rules references when Reggie Miller goes on a rant about something he knows nothing about. Heck it appears the NCAA does a better job of this with Adams during the broadcasts. And I am not asking for a public commentary or and NBA official on camera. I am saying they could tell them what rules applied to a particular play instead of ranting about stupidity. The NFL does it the best by commenting on everything good or bad. The NBA is trying to comment only on the bad and those situations are debatable. If the NBA commented on good calls too I might take a different opinion.

Peace

I totally agree. The Love play looked clearly legal based on the rules that are in place, unless there is some NBA distinction of hitting a hand while the ball is in contact with the ball. Did the NBA come out and say the play where Lebron was blocked was not a foul (against Brooklyn a couple of weeks ago) and make a public announcement of how that should not have been a foul? ESPN spent a lot of time talking about how that was a foul, but the officials did not want to call it in that situation. Why not come out and stay it was not a foul and praise the officials for doing something right? We are not dealing with an educated public here.

Peace

As I understand the process, the teams submit plays that they want reviewed. The league then reviews those plays and issues their statement. The teams can request that the league response be made public or not, and the league office will honor that request. So in the case of the Howard play, the Rockets requested a review with a public statement.

Obviously the league office can review and comment on anything they want, but it's not always their choice to do that.

If that is the case, that is a flawed system. Of course teams are going to want review of "negative" plays. But you cannot keep telling the public how good these guys are and never show the plays they get right to the public. Not everything has to be public IMO.

Peace

From what I understand, only part of that is right. The teams submit plays for review, and the NBA replies to all of them privately. The NBA decides which to publicize, without team input.

Seems kind of silly to give teams the option, they're going to want ALL of them publicized if they felt so strongly about a play that they are sending it in for review.