Up Close
A couple of oddities from the past few days:
-- The NBA likes you to think that their management of the clock is an exact science, sort of how the NFL pretends that the ball is marked so precisely that first-down measurements are accurate down to the inch. But up close? It's a little more fluid than that.
Just a few seconds before halftime of Friday's game in Houston, Tracy McGrady was fouled, but the clock didn't stop. It ran down to zero, and the officials came over to the scorer's table to see what had happened. The timer quickly put eight seconds on the clock and told ref Leon Wood, "There were eight seconds left."
Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy was standing there, and he disagreed, pointing out correctly that "it wasn't eight seconds, because the play started at 8.6." Then Van Gundy told Wood, "There were about 3.2 seconds left." The official looked at him and said, "Three-point-two?" When Van Gundy nodded, Wood turned to the timer and said, "OK, put 3.2 on the clock."
Yes, that's how close coaches pay attention to the game, apparently.
-- The officiating crew in that game got a little cranky by the end of the night, too. Eric Lewis whistled Jerry Sloan for a technical foul, and appeared ready to toss him out two or three times. And in the game's final minute, Monty McCutchen, who is usually a pretty even-tempered guy, snapped at C.J. Miles, "I'm not listening to that tonight, especially from you, C.J."
C.J. Miles, ref-baiter? That's a little hard to imagine. I asked him about it the next night in Denver, and he confirmed that McCutchen said it. Also, as I suspected: "I never said a word. Don't know why he was mad at me." Strange.
-- Those new baby-blue uniforms are apparently a popular item in the merchandise stores, but the authentic ones had a small problem. They shrunk a bit the first couple of times they were washed. In the locker room before a recent game, Jarron Collins put on his jersey, which fit him like a construction worker. So an hour before tipoff, Collins and the team's equipment manager each grabbed one end and pulled, until the jersey was stretched enough to fit comfortably.
-- Phil Miller
-- The NBA likes you to think that their management of the clock is an exact science, sort of how the NFL pretends that the ball is marked so precisely that first-down measurements are accurate down to the inch. But up close? It's a little more fluid than that.
Just a few seconds before halftime of Friday's game in Houston, Tracy McGrady was fouled, but the clock didn't stop. It ran down to zero, and the officials came over to the scorer's table to see what had happened. The timer quickly put eight seconds on the clock and told ref Leon Wood, "There were eight seconds left."
Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy was standing there, and he disagreed, pointing out correctly that "it wasn't eight seconds, because the play started at 8.6." Then Van Gundy told Wood, "There were about 3.2 seconds left." The official looked at him and said, "Three-point-two?" When Van Gundy nodded, Wood turned to the timer and said, "OK, put 3.2 on the clock."
Yes, that's how close coaches pay attention to the game, apparently.
-- The officiating crew in that game got a little cranky by the end of the night, too. Eric Lewis whistled Jerry Sloan for a technical foul, and appeared ready to toss him out two or three times. And in the game's final minute, Monty McCutchen, who is usually a pretty even-tempered guy, snapped at C.J. Miles, "I'm not listening to that tonight, especially from you, C.J."
C.J. Miles, ref-baiter? That's a little hard to imagine. I asked him about it the next night in Denver, and he confirmed that McCutchen said it. Also, as I suspected: "I never said a word. Don't know why he was mad at me." Strange.
-- Those new baby-blue uniforms are apparently a popular item in the merchandise stores, but the authentic ones had a small problem. They shrunk a bit the first couple of times they were washed. In the locker room before a recent game, Jarron Collins put on his jersey, which fit him like a construction worker. So an hour before tipoff, Collins and the team's equipment manager each grabbed one end and pulled, until the jersey was stretched enough to fit comfortably.
-- Phil Miller
12:22 AM
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