It’s not going to make the Denver Nuggets feel any better about being down 0-1 in their playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but they’ve just gotten an official “my bad” from the league office.
The NBA issued a statement earlier today regarding a missed call on a tip-in by Kendrick Perkins.
“Kendrick Perkins was improperly credited with a basket that should have been ruled offensive basket interference with 1:05 remaining in last night’s game. Although a player is permitted to touch the net while the ball is in the cylinder above the rim, Perkins also touched the ball while it was still in the cylinder which is a violation and constitutes goaltending.”
How exactly it was missed in the first place is still a little baffling. Check out the video here and you’ll notice that the announcers caught it immediately (as did a very upset George Karl).
The chances that there are more officials out there looking to purposely affect the outcomes of games is remote, but poor officiating and blown calls are a running theme in the NBA, especially at playoff time. You’d think in light of Tim Donaghy’s accusations from a couple of years ago, David Stern would impress upon his officials to make sure they get things right. Under the circumstances, the appearance of impropriety is enough to make people look at your game a little sideways.
There’s still plenty of playoff basketball yet so we’ll wait to see if this is the start of a trend or just an unfortunate hiccup.