Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Two Examples Why I Love Replay In Sports

“Those who can’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”

...or whatever version of that quote you like best ;)

Many people have been complaining about replay in sports lately. Nick Wright, for example, has said the following two statements in the last week: “Replay, in all sports except tennis, is just awful." and “the officiating has been damaged by having replay. You see it every weekend, where a pass is clearly-- a quarterback's throwing the ball, and the referees are like eh, let's not blow it dead.”

Nick Wright, and everyone who agrees with statements like those, have forgotten the past. Nick Wright also said this week, when Chris Carter sarcastically said "oh, so let's just go back to that" (when Wright was complaining how life used to be without replay), Wright responded with "Absolutely." Those people have forgotten how bad life was without today's instant replay.

My two examples (of many):

 
Example 1: Broncos vs Steelers 2011. Playoffs. Broncos had dominated the first half of the football game. In the middle of the third quarter, the Steelers start a drive in a pretty much "score or lose" situation. The score was 20-6. Ben Roethlisberger throws a backwards lateral to Mike Wallace which is dropped. A Broncos’ defensive player picks it up at the Steeler's own 17 yard line - essentially the dagger that would have ended the game. However, back then, refs weren't letting plays play out like they do now. They weren't airing on the side of caution. Refs decided to call in an "incomplete forward pass." Replay shows it was very obviously a backwards lateral and thus a fumble. But since it was initially ruled an incomplete pass, it was unreviewable. So a horribly wrong call lets Pittsburgh keep possession instead of the Broncos having it in the red-zone. Steelers end up scoring a touchdown on that drive; and with that momentum eventually tie the game and had a chance to win it in regulation. They did forced overtime.

Long story short - even though the Broncos ended up winning in overtime; that game should have been over a long time ago. The refs made a non-questionable wrong call that could have changed the outcome of this playoff game. IF ONLY the ref had done exactly what Nick Wright and others are complaining about! If only “the referees (were) like eh, let's not blow it dead.” That would have saved the horrible, nearly game changing bad call.



Example two: In 1998, The Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls are playing in the finals. Game 6. If Jazz win, they go back to Utah to play game seven. If Bulls win, the series is over. In the 2nd quarter, Howard Eisley makes a 3 point shot for Utah. The refs call it a shot clock violation. Replay shows not only did he get it off in time, but “the ball was 5 feet out of Eisley’s hand with 1 second left on the clock.” But without replay, the three pointer simply didn’t count because the refs made a non-questionable wrong call and didn't use replay.


In the fourth quarter of that same game, Ron Harper makes a buzzer beater from the corner for the Bulls in the last 4 minutes. Replay shows he didn't get it off in time. But the refs incorrectly decided it did.

That was a 5 point swing on bad shot clock calls alone in which replay would have shown they were obviously wrong and easily correctable. Bulls won ended up winning that game by only ONE point (and thus the finals as well).



I would much rather have these controversial replay calls than go back to having those few non-questionably wrong calls that rob a team from their chance of winning it all. Replay has tremendously helped sports to eliminate that bad call that sends teams home and changes history. We don't really remember that because replay is awesome and has fixed most of that. Today we are spoiled. People are getting so worked up on debatable calls. We are living in such a privileged time is sports! One where the only calls we argue about are calls that are questionable instead of calls that are non-questionably wrong. Today's replay has pretty much eliminated the "Oops. We made the wrong call and now you're eliminated. Too bad!" mistakes. Thank you replay!


Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Quin Snyder - Robbed the Opportunity To Be Robbed of Coach of the Year

Quin Snyder has been doing amazing things in Utah as the head coach of the Jazz since being hired in 2014. He took over a very messy roster that was in complete rebuild mode still trying to recover from losing their all star Deron Williams and their long time head coach Jerry Sloan just a few years prior.

Snyder quickly started to work with a roster nobody envied. Two season ago, the Jazz finished with a losing record (40-42) and missed the playoffs. Even after trading starter Enes Kanter to the Thunder for a peanut butter sandwich, the Jazz improved a lot and won 51 games last year (51-31) - tied for 4th placed with the Clippers. Also tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers; who got the 2nd seed with that record in the East.

Turning a non-playoff team into a 51 win (in the West) with a bunch of people you've never heard of, except for barely-an-allstar Gordon Hayward, would normally win you Coach of the Year in the NBA.

Unless you coach the Utah Jazz apparently.

However, not only did Snyder not win COY last year, he wasn't even in the discussion! He wasn't even a nominee! "2016-17 Coach of the Year" turned into a three man race between Erik Spoelstra, Mike D'Antoni, and Gregg Popovich.

Erik Spoelstra - His Heat, the year before, got 48 wins and the 3rd seed in the East. Last year? Missed the playoffs with only 41 wins (in the East!). How Erik Spoelstra got COY votes and not Quin Snyder is beyond me.

Greg Popovich - Always in the COY debate and deserving so. However, his team also dropped from last year. They went 67-15 the year before and last year went 61-21. winning 6 less games.

Mike D'Antoni - Ended up winning COY for doing the exact same thing Quin Snyder did but with more talent and in a larger market - going from 8th seed last year to 3rd seed this year (41 wins to 55 wins). He had MVP finalist James Harden instead of couldn't-even-make-All-NBA-3rd-Team Gordon Heyward. And he coached the Houston Rockets instead of the Utah Jazz.

So Speolstra's team misses the playoffs, Popovich's team does worse than last year, and D'Antoni's team does the same improvement as the Jazz (but with a better roster) and they were the three in the COY race. Quin Snyder not even a footnote.

Expect more of the same disregard this season.

The Utah Jazz are currently on a 6 game winning streak. During the win streak, they have been destroying good teams - Including beating the playoff bound Bucks, Pelicans, and Wizards (a 47 point win).

Oh - By the way, they are doing this without the one player that you knew from last year - Gordon Hayward that left in the offseason.

Oh yeah, their best player Rudy Gobert missed 5 of those 6 games with injury. And they are still winning.

Quin Synder should have won or at least been in the conversation for COY last year - but wasn't.

And he will most likely be overlooked again this year.