especially touch fouls 30 feet from the basket with 1 second left on the clock while he's dribbling. No one get's that call ... sorry.
That was not a touch foul, sorry. When you're trying to put yourself in a position for a shot, and somebody hits you hard enough to knock you backwards and off balance, that should be a call. Whether that's 5 feet from the hoop or 45.
Position on court shouldn't matter (and it's not like this was half court, either. With 2 seconds to dribble Barry could have gotten it to the 3 pt line). Regardless of where you are, someone landing on you is going to impede your shot, and if it's not called, gives the team committing the foul a clear advantage.
This "location of the court" and "time remaining" defense is BS. Barry was within range where he could have gotten a solid shot off. He was trying to get past fisher to improve his shot, and in doing so fisher landed on him and knocked him off balance. That's a foul. Arguing that it's not is asinine homerism.
Do I think the refs cost them the game? No, because I think there were injustices everywhere. But I can't see anyone say that wasn't a foul with a straight face. If we're going to say "he wasn't in the act of shooting, so a non-shooting foul shouldn't decide a playoff game", what's next? Shove a guy down so he can't receive a pass? Trip a guy so he has to shoot from sitting on the floor? Barry damned near fell when Fisher landed on him. Considering he had a minuscule amount of time to begin with, if you don't think that OBVIOUS CONTACT and foul according to the rule books greatly diminished his chances of converting that play, you've got your head in the sand.
It was a foul, that's why I said:
That last play was a foul. I would never disagree with that. But when the officials are generally letting them play for four games, I don't think they should make that call on the last play of the game.
I also said:
I think most fans, coaches, players and GM's agree that they'd rather the refs let the players win or lose the game on the floor. That's why you often see refs swallow their whistles at the end of a game unless it's an obvious foul in the act of shooting. Last night was a perfect example of a good non-call down the stretch.
No doubt it was a foul, the question is whether you let the game be decided on a call like that. Also, the officiating heavily favored the Spurs throughout the game and the Spurs didn't play well enough to win. That's why they aren't and shouldn't be arguing about the call. The refs already put them in that position down the stretch with the bogus air ball call on Fish and the block by Odom that they called goaltending. That ball did not touch the backboard first, clean block. If you want to argue Odom fouled him, fine, but a foul wasn't called. My point, as usual, is there were several bad calls and it usually balances out. In this game, I'd say there were more calls in favor of San Antone, they just didn't get the last and biggest one to go their way.
