Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens Coach Ergin Ataman was once again at the center of a referee controversy – this time in Friday night’s Round 29 home loss to Paris Basketball, 99-104.
Does the coach indeed have a justified complaint?
With 5 seconds left in the game and trailing by two, Nigel Hayes-Davis went up for a 3-point shot that missed badly.
Hayes-Davis protested immediately to the referees that he was fouled by Leopold Cavaliere during the shot.
In fact, the Panathinaikos star, who led all scorers in the game with 27 points, even claims that Cavaliere admitted to fouling him.
“He told me he fouled me,” Hayes-Davis wrote in an Instagram post.
Following the errant shot, Justin Robinson grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Hayes-Davis. After review, the call was (unnecessarily) upgraded to an unsportsmanlike foul. Game over.
As to the play itself, Ataman has a very strong case. Cavaliere’s arms were horizontal (not vertical) and outside of his cylinder when he clipped Hayes-Davis’ elbow on the shot.
There is little room for debate: it was a costly miscue by the officials. Ataman, incensed by the no-call, received his second technical foul and was ejected.
Panathinaikos Lucky to Still Be in the Game?
But Panathinaikos was perhaps lucky that the game was even so close.
While for most of the game, Panathinaikos’ performance was mostly lackluster, they had a few plays go their way that handled differently, would have allowed Paris to put the game away earlier.
Most of these plays occurred in the latter half of the 3d quarter.
With 5:13 left in the 3rd quarter, Jeremy Morgan was called for a shooting foul on Cedi Osman. We can see in the clip that Morgan got all ball.
We see a nearly identical error minutes later, with 2:08 remaining in the 3rd quarter, when Daulton Hommes is called for a shooting foul on Kostas Sloukas.
Again, it’s all ball.
Osman was also involved in another play with 4:38 left in the 3rd quarter, when he swiped Lamar Stevens on this drive. It should have been “and-one”.
Stevens was fouled again with 2:46 to go in the 3rd quarter, when he is clearly illegally blocked coming up the court by Nikolaos Rogkavopoulos.
Instead of a foul being called, the ball was awarded to Panathinaikos.
There’s little of note from a refereeing point of view in the 4th quarter prior the foul in the decisive seconds on Hayes-Davis, except for a basket interference call on Mouhamed Faye with 2:58 left in the game.
On a layup attempt by TJ Shorts, Faye attempts to block the shot but instead contacts the backboard and is called for a violation.
Touching the backboard is, in and of itself, not a violation; it only becomes one if the contact occurs while the ball is touching the ring or if the player causes the basket to vibrate enough to prevent the ball from entering.
That hardly appeared to be the case here.
Coach Ataman has plenty to complain about regarding the final shot, but had earlier officiating decisions been different, the game likely would not have remained so competitive in its final moments.
Unnecessary Game Delays
The other play of note in the second half of the PAO-Paris matchup took place at 3:14 in the 3rd quarter.
Shorts is called for a foul on Stevens, who then hooks the Panathinaikos player.
Once again, Ataman becomes apoplectic and complains to the officials, even appearing to demand a review that the referees correctly denied.
On replay, we see that Shorts first guards Stevens illegally with two hands, and only after that does Stevens hook him, but it hardly comes close to rising to the level of an act of violence or unsportsmanlike foul.
The problem with the entire sequence is that all the arguing and discussions with Ataman delay the game for almost 5 minutes.
This play should have been handled much more efficiently.
This reminds us of a play that took place just before the break in the previous Round 28.
At 5:17 in the 2nd quarter of the Milano-Dubai game (78-96), during a drive by Dzanan Musa and prior to the release of his shot, his teammate Mfiondu Kabengele illegally takes Bryant Dunston out of the play, preventing him from rotating to defend the basket.
The lead referee under the basket makes a very good offensive foul call.
But at the same time, the center referee on the opposite side makes a foul call on Nico Mannion from a position where he could not possibly have seen the play.
Instead of just giving up the call to the lead referee, which is what should have happened, the officials convened, awarded a foul against Mannion, and overturned the illegal screen call–ultimately gifting Musa two free throws.
Why didn’t the lead referee stand up for himself and his decision?
But to make things even worse, the referee discussion, the clarifications, and the final decision took over 4 minutes.
The unnecessary 4-5-minute delays seen in recent rounds are not only detrimental to the flow of the game for players and fans, but also a significant concern for the EuroLeague’s competition and marketing departments.
Todd Warnick is a referee consultant for BasketNews. He refereed for many years at the top levels of Israeli and international basketball. After his retirement, he consulted, coached, mentored, and evaluated referees on behalf of the officiating departments of the Euroleague, FIBA, and Israel.
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