The reaction to this is a microcosm of law in this country.
The rules are clear - can't overturn foul/no foul call on replay. Can overturn out of bounds on replay.
Refs used the out of bounds replay opportunity to reverse a non-reversible call.
I think most reasonable viewers agree on that fact pattern.
The difference is that some people believe that it's an abuse of the rules, and some think it's justice.
I've always been an apply-the-rules guy. If you don't like the results, change the rules by the prescribed process. But don't circumvent the rules to try to arrive at a "just" result, because there are always unintended consequences.
In this case, if they had not blown the no-call on the foul, and had instead called a shooting foul, OKC gets 2 free throws. At worst, the game is tied and Clips get a chance to win. Because the refs decided to make their own rules, OKC gets a 3 and gets a better result with the "end justifies the means" call than they would have otherwise. Unintended consequences.
League needs to make a statement on this. If I was Silver, I'd suspend the refs involved in this decision for the rest of the playoffs and make clear to the public that the rules govern and the refs are required to apply the rules. We can forgive blown calls - it's part of the sport. We can't forgive intentional circumvention of the rules by any person, whether owner, player, or ref.
On a side note, they oughtta make refs blow the whistle when a foul happens and not 2 seconds later when the shot attempt rolls out. I saw it several times in a Heat game, where the ref was clearly waiting to see if the layup was going in after the contact to decide whether to call a foul. The ball rolls off, whistle. If it had gone it, no whistle.
It's about the integrity of the game. Apply the rules.
