[Highlight] Paul George catches an uncontested rebound with 2 seconds left, NBA pool report calls it a “mad scramble for the ball”
Man this is actually crazy. No way you review that and see anything besides Paul George controlling the ball and Nick Nurse calling a timeout.
And to be clear: I’m a Knicks fan that has no love for the 76ers (except Maxey, of course. And Grimes. And Edgecombe. Ok maybe I just don’t like Embiid lol)
Yeah Nurse complains a lot and also pulls shady stuff with regards to gestures but he’s clearly and obviously calling timeout here. He’s right to be pissed
I don’t get why PG didn’t do it tho lol
No that is absolutely a fair criticism of George - dude is a vet and should know better.
That said, Nick Nurse was pretty clearly doing it himself, and it shouldn’t be a requirement for multiple people to call it. This is still the wrong call and possibly altered the outcome of a game
Players are taught in these situations to just play, unless specifically instructed otherwise before the play. That way they don’t waste time looking over for a timeout and then have to hoist up something insane.
Def had no idea they had one
As a vet he should know these things. Really shows why the top guys in the league are at the top and its not just good shooting. Bbiq is so important.
“No ot tonight”
He has a podcast to do.
Dude was so secure he walked onto the court
I think it’s a collective feeling everyone other than sixers fans have towards the organization/players 🤣🤣
QUESTION: At the end of regulation, it looked like Nurse was trying to call a timeout from the bench with about two seconds left why was he not granted a timeout? CAPERS: Because with the mad scramble for the ball and then Paul George getting it and heaving a last second shot, the timeout was never recognized.
QUESTION: At the end of regulation, it looked like Nurse was trying to call a timeout from the bench with about two seconds left why was he not granted a timeout?
CAPERS: Because with the mad scramble for the ball and then Paul George getting it and heaving a last second shot, the timeout was never recognized.
Official Pool report source: https://official.nba.com/pool-report-on-the-final-seconds-of-regulation-and-the-review-that-occurred-at-the-end-of-the-first-overtime-in-tonights-hawks-at-76ers-game/
James Capers needs to be immediately suspended for not only blatantly botching the game in a way that would be hard to do unintentionally, but lying like this to cover it up. The NBA cant be considered a serious sports league if nothing happens
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NBA isn’t considered a serious league already. It’s a show
Maybe by you, but a lot of people consider it a serious league still. The person above you is alluding to that.
This shits entertainment my guy, and barle that. Its a joke of a league and nothing will ever change. Nobody who grew up watching the 80s era basketball is watching a single second of this trash product.
That’s blatantly untrue considering it’s more popular now and watched more now than it’s ever been before.
Is it clear that the NBA is more popular than it was in the past, where popularity is the proportion of the population which are fans? I haven’t seen evidence for that.
That’s true but it’s a little naive at this point.
It’s comparable to WWE. Just accept it’s not totally real and suspend disbelief to have some fun with a semi-competitive show. It’s kinda foolhardy to expect anything more than that.
I will never in my life understand this take. You think they’re rigging shit so the finals can be Pacers Thunder? Fucking Indiana and Oklahoma? Really?
I dont know if thats what the person you responded to thinks, but in general people don’t think the league is rigging games to get preferred teams into the finals like they did with the Lakers vs the Kings in the early 2000s. The suspicion is about much lower level results, things like “missed” calls which swing the point spread or totals etc. Basically the worry is that there is influence on referees and players by gambling entities, and we have good evidence for this from both the players (multiple guys are getting lifetime bans) and refs (Donaghy was the fall guy, league destroyed evidence before FBI could fully investigate, etc)
James Capers needs to be immediately suspended for not only blatantly botching the game in a way that would be hard to do unintentionally
His description of the play is obviously dumb, but it doesn’t seem at all hard to believe that the missed timeout was unintentional.
The ref obviously wasn’t looking at Nurse, nor should he have been.
Are people sure that he heard Nurse? If so, how are you so sure? If not, how is it the ref’s fault?
No but it’s the ref’s fault for doubling down and lying about the situation afterword.
Yea, he should have been. Coaches cannot get on the court, if the refs are not required to look at them, how else would the coach be able to get noticed to call a timeout?
The ref should very obviously be watching the game, which is his job. Imagine how much (very deserved) shit a ref would get for missing a foul call in the final 2 seconds of a tied game because he turned away from the action to look at the bench.
Coaches usually stand right next to refs when they try to call a timeout during gameplay.
The point is that they should be watching both.
Nurse is behind Capers when he calls timeout.
You sound like my bosses.
“Just do the impossible, what are you stupid?”
A referees job is to administer a game. Observing the game in order to call fouls is part of that. Being available for a coach to call timeout is also part of that.
Officials should not acknowledge the coaches as part of the game, the same coaches who are allowed to intervene to call a timeout during almost 50% of the game time?
Interesting take.
Officials should not acknowledge the coaches as part of the game
This is a weird straw man.
Of course it was that clown. He’s so bad.
The nba is considered a serious sports league? NBA is like one step above WWE my dude
“Mad scramble” is wild when PG literally cradled it like a baby. NBA PR thesaurus working overtime.
Idk if they also use the fiba app or just something similar for scorekeeping, but i used to do it on the fiba program and it was always super annoying to give last second rebounds, because if you dont pause the time in the program in time, letting it run out its very difficult to attribute that rebound once the game is considered over.
no excuse for the NBA tho and youd had to not be ready/be distracted to not do it in 2 seconds
It wouldn’t surprise me if this gambling shit goes deeper than the roots of Kawhis trees.
So like not deep at all considering kawhi’s tree definitely don’t exist?
Roots without a beginning or an end are infinite so theoretically Kawhis trees have the deepest roots
I’d be surprised if it didn’t
Feels like I’m gonna be downvoted but being a ref seems like such a shit job. Surely there has to be a new way to call timeouts to avoid this from happening. How has a simple button not been trialled?
right? he’s not even looking at nurse. coaches will tell the refs they want a timeout on a miss. i don’t know how anyone was supposed to see him
Yep, they’re doing it in a way that invites unnecessary failure. Same in football, when Dan Campbell asked about all the times kc snapped the ball well after the play clock ran out. The league told him that sometimes they hire officials whose eyes aren’t fast enough to see the clock in real time, so in that case, the number the official makes up is the real number and the clock is irrelevant. Worst possible answer. They’re inviting unnecessary failure by leaving it up to where someone happens to look or when they happen to spot a zero. Makes no sense.
It’s a shit job but they get compensated fairly and that’s all anyone will care about. Rarely celebrated but only exist in a majority of fans’ minds to ruin their fun so they’ll almost never get any sympathy/credit.
I cannot imagine officiating an NBA game. The size/speed of the game would be incredibly overwhelming. Being a ref seems easy, but I’d highly recommend that people try to be a ref in a local youth league and then report back. See how easy it is to ref a u14 boys game, let alone the biggest/fastest/strongest/experienced basketball players in the world.
But one of the hurdles to using a button would require figuring out a way that only allows the button to be used when the correct team has possession. Which is easier in a video game, but a little harder in real life.
Shit job? Are you serious? They start at 150-250K base depending on the source.
Read past the first 4 words bro cmon
Bro stop the BS.
There’s an obvious difference between little league and the NBA.
There’s every tool imaginable the refs can use and what the NBA will allow.
How hard is it to review that play, admit your mistake and give the time out?
Its feels just like they dont want to and the NBA doesnt want them to. Its mind boggling.
Hell, you don’t even need a button, give the coaches a flag. Time stops when the flag hits the court. They have video angles where you can see the flag and the timer in the same shot, you could get the clock restarted accurate to a tenth of a second.
There’s really no point in relying on a coach getting a ref’s attention in this day and age.
Easy just review the play and admit your mistake.
Not that hard tbh.
Oh I guess the ego gets in the way.
I’m going to don my tinfoil hat like I do with the NFL…
There are reasons they don’t implement these obvious solutions. Just like how not every game in the NFL has a pylon cam and we are still using chains to measure first downs.
The human element invites not only drama that sells but you can definitely sway things one way or the other and have plausible deniability.
The reason is because getting rid of the human element of sports gets rid of the drama. At the end of the day, sports are entertainment and as much as people bitch about the refs, it would be less entertaining if they were replaced.
As for this play, no ref should have been looking at Nurse. It was crazy loud and a last second shot and scramble is going to have all eyes on the players so Nurse should have told his players to call the time out. It’s lazy coaching imo and using the refs as a scapegoat.
I think you might be on to something, but I refuse to agree with the sentiment that taking out the human element “gets rid of the drama” of sport.
Baseball would be no worse if the umpire was guided by a robot umpire, for example.
Tbh i agree with him. There are still people thinking that VAR in football should not be a thing, despite egregious offsides being called onside at times
I mean, look at the passion and comments this has generated just in this subreddit. You have thousands of people commenting, clicking links and paying attention to a fairly inconsequential early season game.
If you’re the NBA, you’re going to get rid of that for what? A boring timeout and a very low percentage last second shot?
I don’t disagree that you can improve officiating is some ways, but I doubt robots would add more value
This is why officiating sucks btw. The league does not care about correctness it cares about attention. If people continually talk about a bad call that’s good. Bad publicity is still publicity
Right? You know what fans want? You know what brings engagement?
Fair and consistent basketball
I swear to god if I see one more person say “human element” to defend some dumb outdated shit I’m gonna ******* ***** ******** ****
If there was a rule that said 2 people have to call timeout, that would make some sense, but I don’t think there is. By rule, he called a timeout. It’s on the officials to recognize that. Whether it’s difficult or not, it’s on the official to be professional and do the job. Nurse followed the rules. The officials failed. That’s all there is. That’s not what scapegoating is.
It’s certainly true that the league sets up the officials for failure in this situation, but culpability is clear and nick nurse owns none of it.
The problem is that you can’t have the officials do 2 things at once. They can’t be watching the players as play is live and PG tries to shoot a last second shot and be staring at Nurse on the bench. In case he calls a timeout.
Maybe they need a bench ref like soccer but I still say this is on Nurse and the players for not being on the same page if they get the rebound
We investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing.
I mean, some of this is on PG too, right?
like cmon PG you are a 15-year NBA vet lmao
I actually think its optimal, tho- have one guy play to the whistle and one guy call timeout
Maybe I’m being dumb but this is my line of thinking.
I think it’s reasonable for a team’s strategy/direction to be:
Players play
Coach calls time out
Given the context, yeah I think the 15 year vet’s gameplan should be for a timeout in that situation but I could also be swayed that the coach’s direction was for players to handle the ball like it was live so that time was wasted in the event of the best option being to just run it.
J cole said: “players play coaches coach”
except dribbling precludes advancing the ball
There’s a chance he gets ignored just like his coach.
I guess, but it’s a lot harder to ignore a guy on the court, with the ball, standing still, making a timeout sign then it is to “ignore” a coach who’s behind the active play on the sideline
They ignored KD calling timeout to a ref’s face opening night! Because everyone but him knew he didn’t have one, so the ref didn’t want to end the game on a tech and not applicable here, but still possible
Play til the whistle
No, he means PG should have also called a timeout and he’s right - it is partly his fault, gotta be aware of your situation.
New rule, only the player with the ball can call a timeout. F coaches
I don’t hate this rule - I’m almost never on team ref, but I’m not sure how you’re supposed to see the coach behind the play in this situation, plus it’s loud and it’s not like you want to grant one just based on hearing the coach which can cause all kinds of other issues (like accidental timeouts granted, which has definitely happened in the past)
Yeah the ref clearly didnt hear em and Capers either is fusing another play with this or simply misremebered and now that makes this seem worse.
Also I don’t know what motion Nurse thinks he’s making but its not a timeout motion and I know he can do it because he makes a clear T when he’s yelling at the ref.
Sucks definitely a miss and an important miss but functionally you can see how it happens.
This is why you see coaches/players walk up to the official to let them know “hey we are looking to foul here” or “hey I’m looking for a timeout if we get this rebound”
And he shouldn’t have dribbled, because even if they had gotten the TO they wouldn’t have advanced the ball.
I’m a high school basketball ref. Even in a high school gym, it’s hard as shit to hear coaches call timeout when you aren’t looking at them and trying to focus on what’s going on on the court. I could only imagine how hard it is in a close NBA game like this.
we’re all just rednecks in the crowd yelling that the ref didn’t see the steel chair shot
The NBA has finally decided to stop pretending its different from WWE
Backstage promos between quarters should be mandatory, I’d love to see Curry cut an Ultimate Warrior promo at halftime
Curry ain’t built to do that amount of cocaine.
He’s called a “shooter” for a reason homie. Heroin
As someone who hates both teams fuck the refs
These refs were drunk all night.
Worst officiated game I’ve seen all year, outside of that LA/SA game that was on national TV
It was madness. Chaos. People were crying in the stands. You can’t blame the refs for getting caught up in the moment.
Is it just me or do I not see the actual timeout signal with his hands? It looks like he’s yelling and just puts his hands together. Almost like a clap rather than the very simple “T” gesture to call a timeout. The papers in his hands don’t help at all.
This clip is super confusing, bc when the announcers start talking about where nurse is, (slow mo zoom in), the camera is actually showing one of the assistant coaches who is the guy with papers in his hands.
Have to go to the beginning of the clip to see Nurse crouched down top right, almost hidden in front of scorers table. Definitely throws up the T and all but runs onto the court.
Ohhhh ok, I see exactly what you’re saying. Yea he’s mid court in the refs face as he runs past him with a very clear T up in the air. My mistake. Thanks for the clarification!
Np lol idk why you got downvoted for asking a reasonable question
Cause Reddit… lol Thanks again for explaining though.
I had to dig deep to find this comment. I don’t give a crap about both teams, but it’s funny how the post suggests very obvious timeout call and then shows a coach that doesn’t do any timeout call motion just stands there confused.
I also think Nurse thinks the ref is next to him and can hear him call time and realizes right after that the ref is further away. So he didn’t think he needed to signal for time and also probably doesn’t call time loud enough
We’ve always had a referee problem in the league but it feels worse this year than ever
Sucks bc this was a fun, close game from start to finish. Hawks defense was great, good chance it still goes to OT, but you just can’t deprive a team their final shot bc of bs like “ref didn’t see it.”
There’s a number of things they can review, I can’t come up with a reason why missed time outs shouldn’t be one of them.
Unfortunately they can do exactly that, did exactly that, and will do it again, and nothing will change.
Refs are really cooking this year. This is one job I will happily support being taken over by AI
I blame the guy who dropped the confetti.
I have never had any faith in NBA officials in arena but I have now lost any and all faith I’ve had in the entire integrity of the NBA after this season. Pool reports are worthless and are basically just used as weird justifications. Challenges are laughably inconsistent and regularly lead to the official saying boldfaced lies to the entire arena.
I barely can even enjoy basketball this season because of it, I feel like I’ve been robbed of one of my favorite things.
Wait..
So the weirdo ref in the Thanksgiving game can hear the Packers coach call a timeout with 60k people yelling & the Packers coach being a good 5-7 yards away while it being a road game for the Packers..
But this coach can’t hear Nick Nurse call timeout at home while being 3-5 feet away from him?!?
Get the fuck out of here.. lmao!
NBA is rigged. Literally have proof it happened before, idk why anyone would think it ever went away
woah this needs investigated
needs to be
Some bs
It’s been said a million times but philly got a real one with maxey
I think we need more refs. Not on the court, but sideline refs, maybe two on each side or one on each end and sides. It’s completely understandable they miss so much shit, there’s only 4 fuckin eyes trying to keep up with everything on the court.
It would have been hilarious if the refs had called a technical on Nurse, leading to a FT by the Hawks to win the game before OT
Anyone taking NBA statistician logs or reports seriously in 2025 is just in denial at this point
Her voice is rusty nails grating down a blackboard. How do Sixers fans put up with this.
How can you not love Maxey?
That is fucking infuriating. What were the lines on this game.
Most corrupt sports league itw
Refs really said “mad scramble” while PG was out there playing catch with himself lmao
Reminds me of the Thunder/Houston game this year where some how no refs saw KD call the TO.
Wtf is PG doing not calling the TO?
Bro’s only a part-timer nowadays. Cant expect him to remember all the rules like the dudes who work full time
You don’t hate NBA refs enough
He did a behind the back for christs sake he couldn’t have had the ball more to himself
I mean PG also has to have the awareness to call a TO himself too though. Refs mights missed one, but PG has to call one as well.
Bring back suits. Coaches look like fans or staff. They need suits to distinguish themselves and catch the refs eyes
Bro he’s on the fuckin court. When has a fan is on the court calling timeout?