Accountability

Tuesday night I had a doubleheader in flag football. Yeah, that's a scary thought.
Coming home from the absolute scariest place in Nashville I think, I was listening to Rome legend JT the Brick on the radio when they started giving a sort of play by play of the Lakers/Spurs game.
Granted, as you know, I don't really care about the NBA other than the Bulls. But as I was coming home, it was getting more and more interesting. So when I pulled in I ran upstairs to catch the last shot by the Spurs. Or whatever that was.
In case you missed it, Brent Barry had the game of his life and had the shot to win it. Unfortunately for him, and the Spurs, and anyone who likes legit sports, Derek Fisher clearly fouled Barry, but no foul was called. Barry threw up a prayer which Kobe said made him nervous...not sure why...and that was that. No big protest by Barry, or coach Popovich. The Spurs took in like the professionals they are, didn't complain and basically said they had a lot more chances to win that game than on one shot at the end.
Again, unfortunately, the one shot at the end is the only one that counts. Ask MJ. Or the Pacers, Jazz, Cavs, Pistons, Knicks, Lakers, Sonics...you get the point.
Joey Crawford is without question, a wild card. And probably shouldn't be officiating in the NBA. Why you ask? In 1998, Crawford was one of 8 NBA referees charged with filing false income tax returns. An Internal Revenue Service investigation was the result of cash being pocketed by referees when airline tickets provided by the league were downgraded. At the conclusion of a four year investigation, Crawford pleaded guilty on July 1, 1998 for falsely stating income of $82,500 from 1991 to 1993 and resigned from the NBA effective immediately. He would be reinstated by NBA commissioner David Stern in 1999 and did not miss a game due to a players' lockout to start the 1998-99 NBA season. In some circles, we call that stealing from your employer.
So Crawford, made the no call. I mean, it clearly was a foul. Again, I'm no basketball expert but this wasn't rocket science.
Here's what irritates me. After the game, TNT goes to their panel of experts, AKA, guys who couldn't beat Jordan, and the likes of Reggie Miller start discussing how it was a foul, but a good no call because Barry didn't "Sell the Foul." So because, it was a foul, but Barry didn't sell it well enough, he didn't get the call.
Ok. So basically, a pre-requisite now for the NBA needs to be an MBA in Marketing from a reputable school. Because apparently, you have to sell the referees to get calls that are obvious to the commoner. Sure, great players get calls here and there because they've earned them. But just listen to the reasoning to that foul not being called. It's absolutely ridiculous. The NBA also issued a statement that it was a foul and should have been in fact been called, yesterday. That's doing the Spurs a lot of good.
I hate it when the NBA does that. Or any league for that matter. What does that prove? I mean, I didn't need the NBA to admit they were wrong, did you? I mean, I have eyes. It just makes it even that much worse that they admit to having officials who blow calls. "Hey, we're sorry, this guy who stole cash from us just stole the game from you. We didn't see this coming."
This thing has been going on a lot recently. That blown home run call that cost me much needed fantasy points and now this.
Who is holding these people accountable? Often times you hear the argument along the lines of, "Refs/Umps/Back Judges don't want to determine the outcome of the game." Um, if I'm not mistaken, it's the players job to determine the outcome of the game, within the rules set forth. And if a player breaks them, they are to be called for breaking them. Should Jordan have been called for the shove on Bryon Russell? I mean, maybe, but I think more of Russell's falling down had to do with Jordan's crossover than anything. The defense of these officials is just ridiculous. You know what happens in the real world when you screw up that bad? You get fired.
So again, who's going to take the heat? Because someone has to. Is it Stern? Probably not. He doesn't care. He's done great things. He's done some terrible things. His handling, and every commissioner's handling of poor officiating is awful.
Sure they probably make most of the right calls. But just like athletes, officials are going to be judged by what they do at crunch time. Joey Crawford didn't get it done and has quite the record anyway. Oh wait, I forgot, the NBA's rigged anyway so...