"Deserved"? That's stretching it

I'm not going to say that Spurs were robbed. I didn't see the entire game, but from what I can gather from the box score and the lines, aside from Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Brent Barry, the Spurs played horribly. Did they deserve to win? I doubt that Popovich or any of the Spurs think so. Should they have won? That's a completely different story altogether. Sure there could have been no calls and controversial calls on the Lakers, yeah, it's hard to believe that Kobe got his 29 points without a single trip to the charity stripe. Let's face it though, this one was obvious, Derek Fisher landed on Brent Barry, and the refs just sat there looking. I don't know what they were looking at, each other? In exit interviews you'll hear Barry and Popovich both say that the no call was the right call, because the refs don't want to deter the "outcome of the game". The fact of the matter is, call or no call, something happened, which invariably altered the outcome of the game. Simply put, the refs don't want to be responsible.

Putting aside all conspiracy theories of David Stern's dream of an NBA Showtime revival, let's simply look at the play. Barry fakes, Fisher bites, lands on Barry and Barry tries to get around for an open shot, chucking up a prayer that was more of a blind heave before the buzzer than any real attempt at making a shot. Had this happened 1 minute earlier, Fisher would have had his 5 personal foul and Barry would've gotten his two free throws. Assuming he makes them and no one scores, the Spurs and Lakers go into overtime. I've heard the argument that the Lakers "deserved" the win more. Sure they played better ball, but if they deserved it that much Kobe wouldn't have been rushing shots at the end of the 4th giving the Spurs back posession of the ball. Of course there's the no resetting of the shot clock after Fisher's toss skimmed the rim, ok, I can buy that, and the whole "poetic justice" of the next no call against the Spurs. To argue that the no call was made simply because the Lakers "deserved" the win? Excuse me? If that's not game fixing I don't know what is. The Lakers deserve the win if Brent Barry had clanked it off the front of the rim with Derek Fisher's hand in his face, if he had bricked it off back iron on an off balance shot, or if Kobe came around the weak side and swatted it, but don't tell me that the Lakers, who had let the Spurs come back within two, "deserved" the win when a 6'1", 200 lb point guard is sitting on Brent Barry's shoulder at the last shot. Lakers made mistakes at the end, sure the refs made mistakes but so did the Lakers. Kobe tried to drive it in instead of eating clock, Fisher bit on the pump fake, doesn't matter how well you played for the remaining 47 minutes of the game, mistakes cost you points, and sometimes mistakes cost you games.

Again, I'm not saying the Spurs were robbed, I'm not going to say that the Lakers were nearly robbed. If the Spurs played the way they were supposed to, they wouldn't have been in that situation to begin with (as most of you that read this would likely know I'm a Spurs fan). However, to say that the no call was the right call because the ref didn't want to affect the outcome of the game and hand the "undeserving" team the victory, that's bogus, by not calling it, the ref simply says, "This team should win, and the other one, well, jump through these burning hoops and if you make the impossible shot, then we'll give you your miracle". I don't get what the Lakers fans yelling at me are all defensive about, the foul wasn't in continuation. Barry gets a foul on the floor, gets his 2 free throws, presumably if he makes them both the game goes into OT and the Lakers can just prove how much more they "deserve" the win in the extra minutes of play. I'm not gonna say whether or not the refs called the game perfectly, because it's obvious that they're human and they didn't, but the fact is, they saw this one, and deliberately decided not to. Sure the Spurs didn't play like they "deserved" to win, but sometimes, even if you don't, you should. This is basketball, not figure skating, refs don't decide who "deserves" the win, they're just there to make the calls when they happened, and please don't tell me that this didn't happen.