Did Derek Fisher foul Brent Barry? Did the San Antonio Spurs get robbed of a victory? Is the NBA leaning heavily towards a Boston Celtics-L.A. Lakers NBA Finals matchup?
The answers: Yes. No. Yes.
Fisher fouled Brent Barry. The Spurs know it. The Lakers and coach Phil Jackson acknowledged it. And the NBA league official issued a statement to confirm it.
Why did the league office respond to this hot-button issue? Because the Gregg Popovich and the Spurs filed a complaint to the NBA and demanded an explanation on what happened in the final two seconds of Game 5 before 18,000 angry San Antonio fanatics.
That's right. The Spurs went to the league office to whine about the play that they felt cost them a chance to tie the series. Popovich and the Spurs all said the right things after the game, which is standard procedure for these guys, and Pop said "if I were the official I would not make that (foul) call."
I didn't know the Spurs changed their nickname to the San Antonio Bulls because that's what that was. A bunch of bull.
The Spurs were playing the good-guy card by not sounding whiney after Game 5. But I can assure you that Pop called the NBA's league office just hours later to vent. The NBA usually will not make a move unless they were put in a position where they had to answer to someone's complaint.
Popovich and the Spurs believed the non-call on Fisher was the sole reason why they lost. Oh, yeah. What about the 47 other minutes where the Spurs were thoroughly outlplayed and outclassed by the younger and obviously more talented Lakers.
In last year's conference semifinals, the Spurs were given a tremendous break when the league suspended Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for one game when both left the bench after Robert Horry tackled Steve Nash. I bet you the Spurs didn't call the league office then.
What the Spurs should be steaming about is the fact that Barry did not "sell" the call. Why did Barry take a dribble to the right to avoid Fisher instead of jumping into Fisher's body and then throwing his arms out to show the officials that Fisher prevented him from getting the shot off? That's how Manu Ginobili would have done it. That's how Dwyane Wade did it in the 2006 NBA Finals and that's what Kobe Bryant has been doing his entire career. It's the art of selling the call to accentuate the obvious.
The referees are not robots. They are prone to making mistakes and some of them even have issues with certain teams and certain players. This has been going on for 60 years! It's nothing new. And it's not just in the NBA, it's all sports at all levels. Remember the Little League umpire who always made the wrong call and all the parents would gang up on him. Well, there is a reason for all those bad calls: he had issues with all you whiney parents and your whiney teams!
The San Antonio Spurs are looking for sympathy and are desperately trying to hang on because they know their time is up. The Lakers have been the better team throughout this series. The Lakers know it. The Spurs know. The NBA knows it.
And besides, no one wants to see San Antonio and Detroit in the NBA Finals. We've seen in 2005 and it was...foul!
