What shaped up to be a spectacular finish to the Thunder-Bucks game on Friday night ended on a decidedly sour note when video replays appeared to show that Giannis Antetokounmpo stepped out of bounds before hammering home what will officially go down as a game-winning dunk.
With the game tied at 95-95 with just over four seconds remaining, Giannis took the inbounds pass on the right baseline, then blew by his defender and finished it off with a two-handed poster jam over Russell Westbrook.
The only problem is that a closer look at the footage seems to show him stepping out of bounds with his left foot as he makes his move to the basket.
https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/946945259505844229
According to the rules, however, it’s not the type of play that the referees can officially review. That reality underscores an ongoing frustration around the NBA and among its fans for both the function and veracity of the mechanisms in place to review just these types of controversial and, at times, game-altering plays.
In the immediate aftermath, current and former players, along with scores of NBA scribes, took to social media to once again voice their criticisms of the league’s replay policy and lobby for some sort of practical revisions that will help avoid these types of outcomes in the future.
https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/946944863785717760
If there’s not a trigger to review that sort of thing, how dumb is the replay system? Like JVG says, if you’re trying to get everything right, how do you get THAT wrong?
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) December 30, 2017
“We can’t do nothing about that at this point so we might as well forget about it.”@carmeloanthony on @Giannis_An34's game-winner. #GameTime pic.twitter.com/ijDoPRfOS0
— NBA TV (@NBATV) December 30, 2017
Official Derrick Stafford on the final sequence via a pool reporter: "In any reviewable matter, there has to be a whistle called on the floor. There was no whistle blown for the play, so we couldn't review it."
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) December 30, 2017
Wow?! No travel OR out of bounds huh? 🤔
— Paul George (@Yg_Trece) December 30, 2017
ARRRGGHHHHH, these officials.. @Bucks vs @okcthunder, Giannis stepped out of bounds right in front of you, how can you miss that official Leon Wood??
— Reggie Miller (@ReggieMillerTNT) December 30, 2017
AD is livid. pic.twitter.com/MXHwbTbzpt
— Boomtown Hoops (@BoomtownHoops) December 30, 2017
A missed call by an official on a game winning bucket for a @Bucks win over @okcthunder is not a good occurrence for the @nba. I have preached this forever. Please allow a coach to challenge 1 call or non call per half. @SiriusXMNBA what’s the harm ?
— Eddie A Johnson (@Jumpshot8) December 30, 2017
Giannis Antetokounmpo made an unbelievable play to win that game. He also very clearly stepped out of bounds right in front of the official. Pretty tough beat for OKC that you can't look at that, for all of the replay reviews there are.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) December 30, 2017
You'd like to think giving NBA coaches a challenge flag a la NFL would catch situations like Giannis' step out of bounds. But how many coaches would save theirs till the final seconds?
— Steve Aschburner (@AschNBA) December 30, 2017
If there’s a silver lining, at least one person directly affected is ready to move past it.
Westbrook on if Giannis was out of bounds: “I couldn’t see that…You’ve seen it. So it’s over now. It don’t matter.” pic.twitter.com/MrbLcBP5bV
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) December 30, 2017
The ideal outcome here is that the league will finally take notice and do their best to address this policy in some fashion moving forward as missed calls like this can have wide-ranging implications for the teams involved.
