The NBA announced Friday that Commissioner Adam Silver has denied the Mavericks' protest of their 111-107 loss to the Hawks on Feb. 22 and has fined Mavericks owner, and member of the NBA Board of Governors, Mark Cuban $500,000 for his "public criticism and detrimental conduct regarding NBA officiating."
Late in the fourth quarter of that narrow Hawks win, John Collins had a successful putback, but the whistle was blown for goaltending by the Mavericks. The goaltending call was overturned through instant replay, but the Replay Center Official ruled that Collins’ basket should count since he was in the act of shooting when the goaltending call was made.
The Mavericks’ protest, the league said in a statement, centered on that play, contending that officials misapplied the playing rules by allowing that basket.
After an investigation, Silver determined there was no misapplication of the rules, and that the rules required Collins’ field goal to count if he was “in the act of shooting when the goaltending call was made.”
The league’s investigation did show that the whistle began to sound one-fifteenth of a second before Collins got the ball. But the statement added: “... It is well-established by prior NBA protest decisions that a factual determination by game officials -- including replay officials -- that is shown in a postgame review to be incorrect is not a misinterpretation of the playing rules. While officials strive to get every call right, games cannot be replayed when, after the fact and free from the need to make rulings in real time, a different judgment about events on the playing floor can be made. For these reasons, Commissioner Silver found that the extraordinary remedy of granting a game protest and replaying the last portion of a completed game was not warranted.”
Cuban repeatedly tweeted about the incident, and walked onto the court to approach officials after the game, “shaking his head and directing comments toward them,” per the statement, which was the second time he walked onto the court to challenge a call during the game.
The statement added that a “team owner’s effort to influence refereeing decisions during and after a game creates the perception of an unfair competitive advantage and thereby undermines the integrity of the game. Demeaning league employees also creates an intimidating workplace environment.”
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