HoopsHype.com Columns

Protest challenge is a brilliant move
by Dusty Garza / May 14, 2004

Get this. One of the last (and well remembered) protests successfully submitted by an NBA team was presented by the Spurs in December of 1982 for a problem they had against the Los Angeles Lakers.

How wicked is that?

The Spurs had lost a 137-132 double-overtime game to the Los Angeles Lakers, but argued that the outcome was tainted by a play occurring with three seconds left in regulation.

In that memorable game, the Spurs were ahead, 116-114, with the Lakers' Norm Nixon at the line for the second of two free throws. Instead of releasing the ball, Nixon faked a shot, drawing members of both teams into the lane. After some confusion, a double-lane violation was called by the officials and a jump ball was held at center court. Los Angeles controlled the tip and scored the game-tying basket.

San Antonio successfully argued that the correct call should have been to make Nixon shoot the free throw. The league agreed and the final three seconds of the game were replayed – four months later (when the teams met again). The Spurs won – not only that game, but the previously scheduled one which was played immediately following the protested contest.

In what has become one of the oddest NBA trivia facts ever, the San Antonio Spurs go down in history as the NBA team that beat the Lakers twice on the same night.

Now, if the Spurs want to stay alive, they’ll have to beat the Lakers twice – again.

Following what may go down as one of the most incredible finishes in playoff history – one which featured two lead changes with less than a single second remaining – the Spurs filed a protest with the league office.

The Spurs believe that the desperation catch-and-turn shot hit by Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers should have been disallowed by the officiating crew due to the fact that – among other things – the shot clock was started late by a member (or members) of the officiating crew, therefore providing Fisher additional time to get off his incredible game winning shot.

The Spurs could cite at least two rules from the official NBA Rule Book which, if interpreted correctly, could provide solid footing for another successful and historical protest.

Let’s break this down. Quick human biology lesson:

On average, human reaction time is three-quarters of a second. That means, if we filmed you as someone fired a pistol in the air behind you, we could then observe a filmed replay showing your “delayed” reaction to the loud noise time and again.

If we timed that same observable reaction and tested the theory on a hundred different people of various ages and sexes, we would find that the vast majority of them would react to the shot no sooner than three-quarters of a second later. No one – and I mean no one – would react immediately. Even to something as startling as that.

Now let’s apply what we’ve learned to Thursday night’s game.

In the NBA, all three officials (in this case Dan Crawford, Ron Garretson, and Joe Forte) have a pager-like remote clock-starting device on their belt. Unless one of them was Superman, none of them could not have hit their clock-start buttons sooner than three-quarters of a second after Derek Fisher first touched the ball.

So, by default, any lawyer (or Laker fan) would argue that the officials started the clock as quickly as humanly possible.

The only problem is… It’s against the rules.

If one accepts the “fast as humanly possible” argument, then Fisher was given a minimum of an extra three-quarters of a second to make the basket after he touched the ball.

And guess what?

That is precisely what the video replays show!

Fisher caught the ball, turned, and was in mid-air before the clock even started.

So in effect, the Lakers were unofficially given eight-tenths of a second total (not four-tenths) to get their shot into the basket.

And so, Derek Fisher was able to grab victory from the hands of the Spurs and exchange it for stunning defeat – all within... Well... More time than the official clock showed.

But alas, the NBA (a place insiders lovingly call Nothin’ But Attorneys) has a “back-up” rule to deal with exactly this type of scenario.

It states:

Regardless of when the horn or red light operates to signify the end of a period, the officials will ultimately make the final decision on whether to allow or disallow a successful field goal.

Oh yes. And just to make sure everything works out, there is another rule :

No less than three-tenths of a second must expire on the game clock when a player secures possession of an inbounds pass and then attempts a field goal.

That didn't happen. Did it?

Ultimately, what this means is that it was up to the discretion of the officials to allow the basket. Given all the science and evidence we’ve discussed even as they reviewed and watched the replays, they still decided that the play was “fair” and that the basket counted.

Ouch!

Immediately after the game, Spurs officials went to work compiling data and filing official forms that needed to get to the league office before midnight.

So convinced are they that the league’s own rules were violated by not overturning Fisher’s shot, that they paid the mandatory $10,000 fee that must accompany any official protest. If a team’s protest prevails, the team’s money will be refunded. If it doesn’t the league keeps it for their coffers.

Now, lets’ be realistic here.

If this protest were being reviewed in a court of law, the Spurs might actually have a descent shot of winning one or perhaps even two arguments related to disallowing “the shot" – therefore also winning the game. But this is the NBA and every one that cheers against the Lakers knows their hard-court is often not as “fair.”

So in my opinion, the NBA will point to the very rule I presented above, underline the part that reads: “the officials will ultimately make the final decision” (which they did – even if it was the wrong decision) and send the protest paperwork back without the $10,000 check.

Given all of that, one can argue that no matter what, the move by San Antonio's Gregg Popovich and RC Buford to file the protest was simply brilliant.

Why?

- The Spurs have nothing to lose. (Except $10,000 of course.)

- The Spurs will get a much more *ahem* professional officiating crew than they’ve had waiting for them at Staples Center during their most recent trips there.

- I have this sneaking suspicion that the actions of the officiating crew assigned to Game 6 (regardless of their professionalism) will be watched under a microscope. NBA fans everywhere whose favorite teams have suffered at the hands of the “Laker Rules” will tune in en force to see if the NBA really does have a “hidden agenda” against small market teams.

Feel better yet?

Sigh.

It all reminds me of the words first spoken by Mahatma Ghandi:

"Heroes are made in the hour of defeat."

Dusty Garza is the chief editor of Spurs Report