According to “The Code,” No-Call Was the Right Call
By Ted M. Green | NBA Playoffs, L.A. Confidential, Los Angeles Lakers, ColumnI don’t have to turn on the three or four letter cable networks today to know they they’re all still blabbing and babbling about the end of Game 4…Lakers up two, Derek Fisher fouling Brent Barry but Joey Crawford manning up with the non-call.
Now I’ll tell you why an old-school ref like Joey Crawford did NOT blow the whistle, giving Barry the chance to send the game into overtime. And it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Crawford’s previous public dust-up with Tim Duncan, the one that got the ref suspended at the end of the ‘06-’07 season.
Crawford didn’t blow his whistle because of The Code.
Let me tell you about The Code.
Today, most NBA refs are automatons, with the personality of androids. But years ago, back in the day, there was a coterie of colorful officials like Mendy Rudolph and Manny Sokol and Joe Gushue and Richie Powers–and most of all, Earl Strom– who seemed to ref by an unwritten yet unmistakable rule, or code:
In the final possession,, officials will NOT make a call that will hand the game to the team that patently does not deserve to win.
This unwritten rule wasn’t talked about openly, of course. It sounds shady, even conspiratorial. But there’s another way to see it for what it really was- a combination of fair play and moral righteousness adjudicated by those with the power to decide the ultimate result.
And that’s why those personality-driven refs became little legends of their own. Because they had the balls and bravado to be judge, jury and executioner if the situation called for their own brand of frontier justice.
This, then, was The Code.
Do all of today’s refs enforce it? Of course not. Do all live by it? Not by a longshot. The less confident, more malleable officials are always prone to being unduly influenced by the power of the home crowd. But old warhorses like Joey Crawford? He knows what’s up.
I once asked Earl Strom about The Code shortly before he died, and Earl just smiled. He knew I knew, and nothing more had to be said.
That brings us to Barry upfaking Fisher at the top of the arc, Fish leaving his feet and falling into Barry’s shoulder, Barry shying from the contact, then taking one dribble to his right before launching a long triple that hit only the backboard.
Was it a foul? Probably. Should it have been called given the full scope of circumstances? Probably not.
Turn the game back to the team that was outplayed all night? By not tweeting his whistle, Joey Crawford said no.
Game over, Lakers win.
Asked later if he was fouled, Barry said, “Maybe, probably.” But he quickly turned the conversation away from the play. Why? Simple. Because he knew the Spurs did not deserve it, and he reps a team that has too much pride and too much class to beg for a call on a night they already knew the better team had won.
And in that way, Barry, too, was graciously acknowledging The Code.
I was quite glad to see the Spurs not crying too much about that final play.
When you never lead for one second on your home floor, when the other team scores eight more field goals than you do, when you are outrebounded 46-37, when you trail by five after the first quarter, by six at the half, by seven after three and by nine with 3:29 to play and by seven with 1:27 left, you have had your butt kicked on your own court.
You do not deserve to win on an arguable call at the end.
Therefore, according to The Code, if you’re as principled and professional as the Spurs are, you don’t ask the ref to overturn that just and fair result, even if Fisher did bump into Barry.
The Code not only dictated the final no-call, it demanded it.
Ted Green is Senior Sports Producer for KTLA Prime News and a former sportswriter for the L.A. Times and National Sports Daily.
Discuss:
17 Responses to “According to "The Code," No-Call Was the Right Call”
- 1 Trackback on May 28th, 2008 at 11:45 am
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nice
Bingo! You hit the nail on the head. It would have been absolutely ludicrous for this game to have been turned over to the Spurs at that point.
i hate that this game will be remembered by this last play and not the bogus officiating that went against the lakers throughout the game- i was surprised it wasn’t called, though it was a foul, it should not decide the game
What ever this is what i expect from a Laker fan. it was supposed to be called, of course you say no because your a sore loser and would go crying in your bedroom whether you win or not. Everyone saw that was a foul, you don’t want it to be a foul because that would of tied the series up, and of course ya’ll team suck and this would be what your first season ring in how long 50 billion years. Crybaby.
Yawn.
Whatever Laura.
I guess you didn’t watch the game, and only saw highlights, huh?
Throughout the game, they weren’t calling a lot of contact, they should up & suddenly change - *just* to change the impact of the entire game? On a ball hoisted up that had abso-effin’-lutely no chance of going in?
Pfft…
First of all, Laura, the Lakers last won a title 6 years ago, only three teams have won a title since then, in a league of 30 teams. So they’re not doing too badly.
As for the Green’s post - it’s silly, and you provide no evidence for this supposed code having precedent. Plenty of teams win games when they’re seemingly outplayed, we’ve all seen it- and they tend to make memorable games and moments.
I remember one having to do with the Lakers: Game 2, 2004 NBA Finals. Detroit seemed to dominate LA all night, and then a very late Kobe explosion (last minute, I believe) sent the game to OT, where the Lakers won. That’s why a lot of people called that series a “5 game sweep” by the Pistons after it was over.
Also, “make up calls” - or, more to the point, “make up non-calls” - as the none call against Fish was, are really dreadful, and pretty unique to the NBA. They’re worse than simple “bad” calls because they attempt to correct a previous wrong with another, more egregious wrong. The past should be irrelevent in the present seconds of a game, ever play should be called on the level.
But it is what it is, stuff happens. Laker fans should just sit back, and enjoy the HUGE victory. Nothing wrong with that. But to defend an obvious mistake - that just seems dishonest. Because if it was Luke Walton (or any Laker) getting pounced in that spot with the season on the line - a none call would’ve sent a fury through LA like few before it.
The only damn thing ludicrous is you letting Joey Crawford justify his moral ineptitude and overinflated ego with “The Code”.
The idea that the officials should have the power to decide a game because from “their perspective” a specific team deserves it is simply assinine.
Your logic would justify the argument that if the Lakers happened to be the team down with that possession, the officials should make the call because they were the team that deserved the win. Of course, I’m sure you’ll take that with your biased Laker opinion knowing Kobe gets that call.
If the refs had made the correct call on Fisher’s shot this play never would have happened. Fisher’s shot hit the rim and therefore the Lakers should have had a new clock. The Spurs would have been forced to foul Kobe to get the ball back.
With the tables turned, L.A. down by two points, Kobe pump fakes, getting the defender up in the air, landing on Kobe, is the foul called? You bet your ass it is. The league, the media, the advertisers all want a L.A., Boston match up. Kobe would have gotten the call because of his “star” status. Berry just isn’t a star. Face it folks, NBA playoffs are determined by the officials!
Ted -
I wish that I could stop you from talking when I hear the silly things that you say.
Sure, yeah, “the code”. Please! Let your precious Kobe get creamed at the end of any high stakes game and tell me about the code. The NBA wants the Lakers in the Finals, and if a little theft is called for Joey Crawford’s just the man to do it. Why else would they have this obviously biased egomaniac working it?
I’m so glad that my refs did the right thing. I need a Celtics-Lakers rivalry more than Eliot Spitzer needs a whore.
D. Stern.
The NBA has declared that a foul should have been called on Fisher in the final seconds of game four, giving Barry a chance tie the score and put the game into overtime. Once again, a spineless Joey Crawford no call effects a games outcome, sending LA back home with a 3-1 lead. Here is the link to the full story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/ap_on_sp_bk_ne/bkn_nba_no_foul
The NBA has admitted that a foul should have been called on Fisher. Once again, the officials determin the outcome of a playoff game. The league really wants Celtics-Lakers Finals! Just search under Yahoo sports, NBA no foul for the whole story.
“With the tables turned, L.A. down by two points, Kobe pump fakes, getting the defender up in the air, landing on Kobe, is the foul called? You bet your ass it is.”
@ Eric - Kobe would get the call because he would not try to avoid the contact the way Barry did.
Earl Strom wrote a book about officiating in the NBA that is a must read. He talks about what went wrong with the refs and it continues to this day.
As for the Code. I’ve never heard of that. I have heard of refs not wanting to decide the game on the last play.