Are Instant Replay and Soft Officiating Hurting Sports? An Honest Inquiry.
Big Gup takes a dive into instant replay and officiating in sports today.
While Tuesday night’s Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals resulted in a wild inbound alley oop to Deandre Ayton for a game winner and a rightful Suns’ win, we were very close to having a much weirder and frustrating result.
As StatMuse (@StatMuse) pointed out, the last 90 seconds of game time took 33 real time minutes with every possible chance of a review gladly taken by the officials.
The show began to fall apart with the officials falling for Patrick Beverley’s flop to draw the offensive foul against Devin Booker with 1:06 left in the 4th, to only confirm the bad call after review. The resulting and sequential offensive possession for the Clippers would result in another foul against Booker where Paul George clearly under-hooks Booker’s one arm with 56.7 seconds left. A“savvy veteran move” by George for some maybe, but gaming the rules for a cheap foul for many.
You could almost hear parents across the country, with their kids watching by their side, plead to the refs “Let the boys play!”
Then as it appeared Patrick Beverley had tipped the ball out of Devin Booker’s hands, it became №3 Texas Tech vs №1 Virginia in the 2019 NCAA Tournament all over again. If you don’t remember just how much instant replay can run a muck, here’s a reminder of its possible overreach.
Stan Van Gundy’s heart was tested on national television, he pleaded helplessly, “This is bad for the game.” And he reminded us all that this was not in the spirit of the rule, and that we don’t break every other possession down frame by frame for the other 46 minutes of the game.
Yes, by the official letter of the law, they got the call right. It appeared to last touch Devin Booker last and thus should be Clippers’ basketball. But should the last two minutes of basketball be so painfully dissected and become a less than fun watch for viewers? Should the Clippers get a de facto challenge of the original ruling, which was Suns’ basketball, by Beverley knowing how often the officials were frequenting the monitors and just twirling his fingers in a circle?
After that had reared its ugly head, you might think that was the end of it and the game proceeded to end smoothly. But the flow of the game continued to be bogged down by reviews. With the ball and 7.8 seconds left, the Suns down to the Clippers 102–103 they had a possession where the ball was forced out of Devin Booker’s hands and eventually kicked to Mikal Bridges for a corner three. Mikal missed the open look and it was ruled out off the Clippers and Suns’ basketball, but not until instant replay made its confirmation. Giving Monty Williams a de facto timeout during the review, and time to draw up an inbound alley oop to perfection.
That was it! Game over! After a little bit of a mess on the officials’ part at the end there, it was complete. The Suns had overcome the Clippers, the officials and instant replay to take a 2–0 series lead. Until it wasn’t. Because it had to be reviewed of course!
Another review resulted in a confirmed basket by Ayton, and somehow 0.7 put back on the clock after the after the clock had been at 0.9 prior to the inbound alley oop. This was one I did not see coming. Even with the most bizarrely generous call, I was thinking maybe .03 or .04 would get put back on the clock. This review also gave another “free timeout” for a team to draw up a play, and allowed the Clippers to try to sneak an alternate lineup out onto the court. All this was for not, the added 0.7 seconds, the illegal lineup change, and the drawn up play resulted in nothing after all the confusion.
This game had every aspect of an insufferable amount of instant replays and soft officiating at the end. The refs almost fouled out the biggest young star in the game with just a minute left by falling for worse acting than found on Pretty Little Liars. We found out the ball grazed Booker’s hangnail and it was the Clippers’ ball after a free challenge. We time traveled so there’d be a chance for the Clippers to inbound the ball before the game was over.
I’m glad Monty Williams and the Suns’ benefited from the time they got to draw up the game winner due to the excessive amount of reviews, because if the Suns had lost that game there was no way of walking away and not thinking the Clippers and the officials had stolen the game in the last minute.
All of this undoubtedly tempered the viewing experience of the fans at the end. We were lucky to have the excitement of the inbound alley oop that saved the day.
Officiating and game play bogged down by reviews shouldn’t so often be the topic of conversation after big games. Especially Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, where a team littered with young stars and down their Hall of Fame point guard just refuses to lose.
