Officials Officially Suck...

Last night as I was tormented by the events that transpired in the closing few seconds of the Spurs-Lakers game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, I couldn't seem to shake this one thought from my head: WHAT WAS DAVID STERN THINKING!?

Joey Crawford, now infamous for his ejection of Tim Duncan last season, was assigned crew chief and lead official for the game played at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. I believe in second chances for people in life, so I was willing to give the guy another chance to prove his worth as a ref...but then game 5 of the Spurs-Hornets game came along and Crawford gave coach Pop a technical foul much to the dismay of most fans watching. I knew at that point the risk of having Crawford on the court was much higher than the reward. After last year's childish fiasco involving Duncan, Crawford was skating on thin ice to begin with, and should have avoided calling any sort of technical fouls at all costs. (In my opinion, if the guy was forced by commissioner Stern to go to counseling sessions before being reinstated as a NBA ref, then I feel like he has too much baggage to be on the court with the highest payed and most incredibly gifted superstars of the league) It probably would have been a better idea for Stern to leave Crawford out of this series completely in order to avoid any unnecessary and unwarranted scrutiny from millions of NBA fans across the country....

Moving along to my point. In spite of the Spurs putting on a choke fest for the nation to watch for 99% of the game, they somehow did what they absolutely had to do in order to have a chance to win at the end of the game (along with the help of a few missed FT's by Paul Gasol and missed running jump shot by Kobe Bryant). Overall I believe the game was fairly called, except for the occasional missed call on BOTH ends (which is to be expected and a part of the game), but in the most crucial 2+ seconds, Crawford and Co. swallowed their whistles and allowed Derrick Fisher to plow into Brent Barry a split second before Barry attempted a 3 that would have given San Antonio the miraculous come-from-behind victory. Amidst a sea of boos and expletives, the Lakers scurried of the court like a pack of rats and the entire Spurs team was left scratching their heads as to why no call was made. Despite this no-call I, along with most rational Spurs fans, cannot pin the blame entirely on the shoulders of this officiating crew, but they certainly blew a HUGE call at a time when it absolutely could not be blown. If San Antonio was going to play so poorly maybe they did not deserve a chance to win it, but ultimately a game should not be decided by an official's fear of making the big call at the biggest, most crucial moment of the game.

This is nothing new in sports. Period. There have been so many last second no-calls in recent history that it is mind boggling. (A recent one affecting A&M's 2008 NCAA tourney run comes to mind) Generations of sports fans have been dealing with the same issues that continually go unchanged. For the NBA, (even college hoops) they already have instant replay as a vital part of the game...to a certain extent. If replay can be used to determine if a shooter's foot was on the line during a 3 point attempt, too see if a shot is made before the buzzer goes off, etc. then WHY ON EARTH do they not use the replay system to view calls made during crucial times in games? (a la Spurs-Lakers, and Aggies-Bruins) The answer to this question is simple. Officials and the governing boards that oversee them are too prideful, too arrogant to ever...EVER admit that they are wrong. God forbid that a person faced with making a decision in a fraction of a second could actually make a...gasp...mistake! Until they decide to let the players decide the outcome of the game entirely and remove human error from the final equation, sports in general will continually be played with a black & white striped cloud hovering over head.