Canzano: Upon further review, blown goaltending call in Trail Blazers game exposes NBA - OregonLive

Human error happens. In fact, three NBA officials on the job on Friday night, charged with getting the calls right, missed a big one. They admitted as much after Portland’s loss to Utah. But that only raised more frustration and a key question for the NBA.

What exactly are we watching here?

Damian Lillard, driving in an effort to score a game-tying basket in the final seconds, drove and finished a layup off the glass. Utah’s Rudy Gobert made contact with the ball after it hit the glass. That’s an easy goaltend call. Two points. Tie game. Except there was no call.

Lillard whipped around, looking for a whistle. He turned to one official, then another.

Nothing.

The Jazz won the game. Lillard was understandably irate. Blazers fans took to social media, wondering how -- in a world of freeze frames and an NBA Command Center -- could the outcome of a game played in 2020 feel so... 1980.

“Not reviewable,” is how.

Referee Josh Tiven told the pool reporter working the game: “It was not reviewable since no goaltending call was made on the floor. Goaltending is only reviewable if we actually call it. The call needs to be made for a goaltending to be reviewable. We’ve since looked at it, via postgame video review, and unfortunately saw that we missed the play and a goaltending violation should’ve been called.”

Human error, we understand. There’s a lot going on as Lillard drives to the basket, draws contact, and attempts to tie the game. That three officials missed it, we’d all ultimately forgive. But what’s maddening and puzzling is the league’s final position on the play. And Tiven’s revelation that the call is only reviewable if they actually whistle it on the floor is silly. That fact alone is troubling. It puts the officials in a late-game position where, when in doubt, he or she probably needs to blow the whistle and stop the game -- maybe, just in case?

There was plenty of human error on Friday.

Trevor Ariza, for example, got himself ejected for arguing with an official. Human error. It ultimately left Portland playing with only seven players. Carmelo Anthony didn’t miss a goaltending call, but he did miss eight shots. Human error. And CJ McCollum bricked a couple of free throws that could have made a difference.

It happens. Officials miss calls. But the NBA has a Command Center in New Jersey that was designed to make sure those made on the court, by its officials, were corrected. It has 100-plus television monitors and 21 full-time employees working, scrutinizing position of feet and whether a ball was touched last by which team. “Loggers” and “super loggers” even track what is said on the television broadcast when a call is made or not made.

It’s been a source of frustration for league broadcasters who long felt, especially under David Stern’s reign as commissioner, that they were scrutinized for being critical of the league’s officials.

I did a five-part series on the NBA officiating a few years ago and Rod Thorn, working as the NBA’s director of operations, told me in Part 2 about the Command Center: “We have so many more people that work here now in my department than when I was here before. There’s so much more scrutiny.”

I asked Thorn if it was true that officials only got 75 percent of the calls right.

He corrected me: “We actually get more than that right. If you count every call, plus incorrect non-calls and correct non-calls it’s higher. We log every game, every day. We log them all, here. Our percentage is higher than 75 percent... it’s up in 80s.”

Again, human error, per Thorn, was put somewhere between 11-20 percent when it came to officiating games. We’d understand that. We all sort of accept it. But we’re comforted by the fact that the league is closely watching, looking to correct glaring mistakes that affect the outcome of games.

Portland got a raw deal on Friday night.

The job at the Command Center is to grade, monitor and track the officials. And the crew must have gone bananas when Lillard kissed the ball off the backboard. After all, the facility they were sitting in was designed and built for a moment just like that. Except, the system was left helpless to correct it by an NBA rule that needs to change.

Human error, we can live with. But if an obvious game-changing goaltending call isn’t reviewable, what exactly are we doing here?

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https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2020/02/canzano-upon-further-review-blown-goaltending-call-in-trail-blazers-game-exposes-nba.html

2020-02-08 15:48:00Z
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