Did the NBA really reopen the can of officiating worms one week before the regular season is over? It’s a foreboding omen ahead of the NBA playoffs, where there are more horse collars than you’ll find at Churchill Downs the first weekend in May.
“On the final play of [Tuesday’s] Oklahoma City-Utah game, the officials missed a foul committed by the Jazz’s C.J. Miles on the Thunder’s Kevin Durant during a three-point shot attempt.”
If Joel Litvin, NBA president, league and basketball operations, can rule on Tuesday’s game, surely Wizards fans would be interested in every game that LeBron James plays, a.k.a. another game in which he travels. Can the NBA issue a standard Mad Lib?
“In the [quarter number] on [date], the officials missed a foul committed by [no-name bench player] on [league-anointed superstar].”
And Litvin needs to clarify: Is there a statute of limitations? Surely Jerry Sloan might also like to hear about the final play of the 1998 NBA Finals? Perhaps he already knows: In the eyes of the NBA, Durant is to Michael Jordan as Miles is to Bryon Russell. Kevin Garnett‘s $25,000 fine earlier in the week after he argued that officials treat Durant like Jordan hardly seems coincidental.
“Transparency is a great disinfectant,” Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in reaction to the league’s admission of guilt.
That would be fine, except the NBA isn’t a granite countertop. Eventually, spilled red wine is going to ruin something special.
