The NBA’s ruling on the New York Knicks’ official game protest appeared to involve some mental gymnastics.
The NBA stated on Wednesday that it had denied the Knicks’ challenge of the ending of their February 12 loss to the Houston Rockets. The Knicks filed the complaint after Jalen Brunson was called for a phantom foul as time expired, allowing the Rockets to make the game-winning free throws (video here).
The NBA admitted in its statement that there was “an error in judgment” by game officials. However, they stressed that the threshold for a successful objection was that a team must demonstrate “a misapplication of the playing rules” rather than a simple error in judgment. The Knicks did not meet the threshold, so their protest was denied.
The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/zdF29Swrva
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) February 28, 2024
In all likelihood, the NBA does not want to open a bag of worms by establishing a precedent that subjective calls can be successfully challenged. Even still, the objection appears to be of little use as a mechanism if it cannot correct even a call as plainly wrong as that one (which the crew admitted to missing just minutes later).
Fortunately for the Knicks, the laws of karmic justice smiled down on them. Earlier this week, they found themselves on the receiving end of another awful game-swinging referee controversy.
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