JANUARY 25: The Trail Blazers are reversing course and are letting the 48-hour deadline to file the protest pass, Wojnarowski tweets.
According to Wojnarowski, the Blazers feel as if they communicated their frustration to the league office about the controversial closing moments of the contest. As noted below, the odds of the protest being upheld were slim, so filing one would have been more about Portland expressing its displeasure than a legitimate hope to replay the final seconds of the game.
JANUARY 24: The Trail Blazers are filing a protest with the NBA following a two-point loss to the Thunder on Tuesday, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
As Wojnarowski explains, Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was signaling for a timeout with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Portland holding a 109-108 lead. However, he wasn’t awarded that timeout — instead, guard Malcolm Brogdon was called for a double-dribble, giving the Thunder possession of the ball.
Billups came onto the court to angrily contest the call and confront the game officials, who hit him with a pair of technical fouls and ejected him from the game (Twitter video link). Shai Gilgeous-Alexander converted one of the two technical free throws, then Jalen Williams made a game-winning jumper with two seconds left to secure a 111-109 Thunder victory (video link).
“We’ve got timeouts,” Billups said after the game. “Referees usually are prepared for that, you know, that instance, that situation. I’m at half court, trying to call a timeout. It’s just frustrating. My guys played too hard for that. It’s a frustrating play.”
As Aaron J. Fentress of The Oregonian relays (via Twitter), referee crew chief Bill Kennedy said after the game that the official who typically would’ve responded to Billups’ timeout call was focused on Brogdon and the play right in front of him, and didn’t hear or see the Blazers’ coach asking for time.
As Wojnarowski details, a team that wants to file a protest must do so within 48 hours and must provide accompanying evidence within five days. The league then has five days to make a decision.
If the protest is upheld, the end of the game would be replayed at a later date, but that’s extremely rare and hasn’t happened since 2007, per Wojnarowski. As Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report notes (via Twitter), the Blazers likely don’t expect the outcome of the game to be altered, instead viewing the protest as a way to express their displeasure with the ruling.
As I was watching this live, I had never seen a game before where I was like “wow this was rigged” that much. That ending was ridiculous.
I am not one to complain about refs because they are humans and the game is very fast, mistakes can happen, but aa of late the nba refs have been real bad.
It has been happening a lot this year. Now that NBA allows betting on games there has been some very bad reffing games.
FYI, betting has been around from the very first NBA game played…..
Millions of people betting on their phone apps is a lot different than how betting was conducted decades ago.
10 missed calls in the last 2 minutes of that Hornets Timberwolves game the other night. The NBA is absolutely rigged.
Was that a record? And the team that benefited most from the wrong calls won – “figures”
It boggles my mind that folks waste time on a sport they’re sure to be absolutely and frequently rigged. I don’t see the point.
The refs know the time and score. So they know that a TO is coming. At least that it is possible. Yes the noise or pace of gm can throw them off. I didn’t see it. So can’t comment. But I certainly understand why Chauncey is pissed. I’d like to see it ……
Anyone got video ????
link to twitter.com
Two angles of it.
Just watched it…
Brogdon gets doubled. But lost sight of ref. So he urned away from ref, gave him his back. And was calling TO. Except ref is behind him.
Definitely can see ref point of view.
But he could’ve seen Chauncey trying to call it. It’s tough man. I’d have to give it to ref. Brogdon turns away. And with noise ??
Again the pressure D makes you mess up. That’s what I saw … tough call. Blazers had it. I’d be pissed too.
Refs in the NBA are the worst they’ve ever been. They take zero accountability for missed calls, aren’t allowed to talk to the media or press and basically just hide all year when they aren’t on the court making horrendous calls. Refs are actually some of the most pathetic humans on this planet
Either it’s rigged, the NBA is comically afraid of the ref’s union, or the NBA just doesn’t care because people will still watch the games anyway. Bad either way you slice it.
The explanation the crew chief gave after the game made no sense, really. “Yeah, the guy closest to the play had complete tunnel vision, and nobody else was watching either.” So… your whole crew was incompetent? Yourself included? Great explanation. Gold star.
Apparently, the NBA also announced that the refs got 10 calls wrong in the final two minutes of the Charlotte-Minnesota game from the other night.
10 —— ????
I don’t think the league would be rigging anything for small market OKC…but sports are corrupt.
Not so much because they are small market but people who believe sports are rigged are more concerned with the betting aspect…I mean how many people might have bet Portland would win or atleast cover points or whatever…same with football why a lot of people are thinking it’s also rigged to a point….It’s All about the betting….
Betting is why Pete Rose isn’t in the hall or baseball. It’s why the whole Black Sox are barred to this day from baseball. But it still goes on and with a tech world, no major sport can prevent it
Shoeless Joe was framed and never took s***!
Stuff like this is why you’re seeing players, in all sports, get more upset with refs. Like I get a lot of the “protections” the refs have is due to their own CBA agreement with their respective leagues, but refs are overprotected. They can’t be criticized by players/coaches/teams without risk of a fine and it rarely seems like crews see some sort of punishment for repeated mistakes or blunders.
Thisthisthis a thousand times this. MLB has an even worse problem with this, and has for years, to the point that they’re seriously considering removing the Home Plate Umpire’s responsibility to call balls and strikes, and replacing it with an electronic strike zone. MLB Umpires face zero discipline and longtime umpires are basically immune to criticism from MLB as well. Even if they pick fights with players or intentionally screw teams over. It’s ludicrous.
Scott Foster is the Joe West of the NBA. Thankfully, nobody is the Angel Fernandez equivalent. But NBA refs as a unit aren’t good at their jobs. Maybe there are some standouts, but geez.
*Hernandez
I’m so irritated with him I forgot his name! Lmao.
MLB should do that it would fix them
Make them almost immune to this type of problem
With no accountability
I love watching the Blazers as my late game option on East coast. Their broadcast team is great. That being said one thing I learned from watching them a lot is Chauncey is not a quiet man. His voice often gets picked up during games so I can’t imagine how loud he was calling for a TO.
Watch out. The refs may demand to have four officials out there.
Might be a good thing and they can call traveling again.
Lol all these comments, much like the protest itself, wreak of loser energy.
What you all seem to lack is a basic understanding of how rules work. First, it doesn’t matter when a timeout is “called”, only when it’s granted. So Billups “calling” for a timeout is irrelevant if the official doesn’t hear or see him. You know who else could’ve called for a timeout? Literally anyone on the floor. But none of the players thought to do it, and then Brogdon turns the ball over, and then Billups loses his mind for moment, and bumps the ref not once, but twice. Making intentional contact with an official is an automatic tech (it’s a non-judgement rule, like out-of-bounds or the shot clock), but the ref gave him the benefit of the doubt on the first bump, which could’ve been incidental. He doesn’t issue a tech until Billups bumps him *again* while he’s in the process of warning him about the first one. Billups then compounds his mistake by chasing the official down the court while screaming at him – another automatic tech for everyone except Steve Kerr, for some reason – which is how we arrive at the Blazers organization conducting a rather embarrassing face-saving exercise on behalf of the coach and, in the process, gaslighting their fans, who largely don’t seem to grasp that their team is bad and not trying to win games, into believing they’ve been somehow wronged.
Bad job by everyone.
Everyone knows how the timeout rule works. It doesn’t matter who calls for it, and just because players didn’t, doesn’t mean the Blazers didn’t deserve to have it granted. The refs not awarding it directly affected the outcome.
Also, Brogdon was calling for it, which you’d know if you actually watched the play, lol.
Well the player with the ball called for a timeout both signaling with his hands and says timeout out loud and the HC was 5 feet away yelling for TO several times. Ref said he had tunnel vision and wasnt paying attention to coach and was only looking at play in front of him yet even missed that.
Styers you might be the only rational person in this thread. Thank you
I think we found crew chief Bill Kennedy’s burner account. Either that or you’re just a standard run-of-the-mill unbiased OKC fan ( as my eyes rollllllllll )
You’re not wrong, but why shouldn’t the refs clearly failing to see an obvious timeout call not constitute a successful protest? Personally, I think that should be the case even if, technically, the players could and should have called one themselves.
If not, at least change the rule itself and make such a possibility exist moving forward. Allowing refs to get a pass for “not seeing” a timeout call doesn’t seem fair when that is a clear part of their job description, and there isn’t a more obvious missed call than a missed timeout call.
Fire Silver
Right. Because I’m sure the next guy will making holding refs accountable a top priority /s.
I know it wasn’t him but as long as Scott Foster is allowed to referee it proves they rig and cheat games for the NBA s $$$$$$ gains.
He’s known as the extender!! And his beef with Chris Paul shows he cannot be impartial
Fire silver and every referee start over with new referees
God you Golden State guys have so much anger built up and you’re only half way through this dumpster season. In 3 years you’ll be living in a trash can on Sesame Street
Show them the role book and tell them any time it’s not a charge and the offense guy starts the contact don’t send him to the line
Blazers really needed that win for their playoff push…..
You don’t need a playoff push. You need another good pick. Next yr a yr older with this group. They can start making their push up. Blazers future is bright
That was sarcasm on ironmonger’s part.
Yeah …. missed it
Rigging games has been in the league awhile, don’t even attempt to hide it anymore. This year the mask has fully come off, worst officiating I’ve ever seen.
I’m not one inclined to believe the rigging angle of things (though I do think the league may try and massage big leads into smaller ones to keep games interesting). Rather, I think ref/umpire/etc unions have way too much power in sports and the leagues themselves are afraid to cross them. And I think this is especially true in the NBA, which has a good relationship with both the refs union and the players union.
And there-in lies my problem with unions in general: the vast majority are beneficial, but the ones that grab hold of too much power become a problem because the last thing they care about is doing the right or fair thing (see: police unions). They will advocate for their members no matter how undeserving or what collateral damage it may cause.
If that is indeed the case, I can understand it from a business perspective; if 98% of fans will still watch the games, why risk rocking the boat? At the same time, on a personal level, I would find such cowardice to be disgraceful. You know the product would be suffering as a result, yet wouldn’t even risk putting up a fight on behalf of the fans? That, to me, is worth impacting the bottom in the short-term.
Teams need to get aggressive on the officiating issues…
And do this more often…
Force the NBA brass to make a change…
Cricket has the perfect solution to these incorrect calls… The 3rd umpire who watches each play and can overrule any bad calls made by the on field umpires…
The NBA might need 3 extra refs at each game watching replays in order to do it properly… And some people may hate the idea of the score being reset, but at least the integrity of the game will be respected…
I’ve even thought that should be possible from someone watching a live feed, as there are some calls which are far easier to make from an overhead shot than being on the ground.
Also enforcing the flopping rules would be a nice change of pace. There should be someone reviewing every second of footage from every game and hitting floppers left and right. That stuff would get cleaned up in a hurry if the hit rate increased 10x combined with stiffer penalties.
But considering how weak the NBA has been toward resolving this issue, it’s clear there is little interest in a fix.
They refuse to enforce obvious flopping on star players, and worse call some players for almost nothing (see the one called on Aaron Gordon).
EON- Portland. Grant to Chicago for Ball and Patrick Williams with a pick then Thybulle and Robert Williams for Wiseman and Bojan. Ayton and Simons for Capela, Mills and Bogdon with a 1st pick. Grants contract will be bad plus he is much older than scoot and Sharpe plus Ayton’s contract is really bad. I would trade all these guys for two year deals when the young core is ready to take over with veterans. You get a young PF and C with two extra picks and saves money You can package their picks to get a better one if need be. They need to do a full rebuild and not a little one. There was no point in trading Lillard then. You want to leave them alone so This is for Portland To win two extra games really. Do you see their record? Why pay huge salary to lose? Ayton is playing horrible with that horrible contract, Grant is much older than scoot and Sharpe, Simons is not a winner, they don’t play Thybulle, what is the point in trading Lillard when you don’t do a rebuild. Should of taken that heat deal for Jaime J, Lowry and picks or traded scoot instead. Why commit when you should be tanking? Two year contracts with veterans is good. Do a rebuild so scoot has a chance.
We can keep it the way you all said it and win two more games. Wow. Okay sure and ruin Scoot like Lillard. Just because a team goes young doesn’t mean it’s Detroit’s way smh. Yes you can still have veterans on the bench. I like Grant but in two years that contract will not look good. Simons in not a winner. Ayton’s contract is really horrible. But sure keep everyone to win a extra game, their record right now is so good and not improve like Lillard’s time there.
They should just file this protest for ‘point-shaving’ and I don’t see how it can lose…It’s at an all-time high now, thanks to all the sports betting!
Silver and the NBA won’t admit to anything. It’s only about money now. No pride and just Green
The NBA wanted OKC to win. It’s that easy. You all should see how scripted this is. Just look at the standings this year. Time to realize this and WWE is fake
Did someone realize they want to lose?
“Never mind”