Stu Jackson Speaks Out On Blown Call In Lakers / Warriors Game

Via fanhouse and latimes:

Many, especially Warriors fans, thought if there was a foul at all, it was committed by Fisher. Stu Jackson, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations, agreed.

"We did review," Jackson said Tuesday. "The call was incorrect. After looking at the play, the foul was on Fisher and not Ellis. It appeared that Fisher pulled Ellis down."

Jackson said the league informed the Warriors of its analysis. Delaney was also informed, though Jackson kept the discussions with the respected referee confidential.

In other news, Kobe Bryant just picked up another technical when he called Stu Jackson to argue the comment.

The Officials Love LA!

Well... the Bruins aren't the only team in LA getting all the calls. Warrior fans are not at all happy at what happened in Overtime of last night's loss against the Lakers:

4 Seconds Left: Inbound pass set in Faker territory. This is it. The last play of the game. Nellie’s timeout prepped the team to tie it or shoot a 3 for the win. As the whistle blew and the players wrestled for position … the unthinkable happened. Fisher fell to the ground grabbing Monta with him, and the ref Delaney, blew the whistle calling an offensive foul.

This was the 2nd call during the 2 day mini-series where Fisher had a call go his way, well... the other was a no-call when there should have been a foul called. At the end of the 3rd quarter of Sunday night's game - The Warriors threw a full court pass to Stephen Jackson who had gotten behind the defense... his intent was to catch and shoot in one motion - but Fisher fouled him knocking the ball loose... however, no call was made. I was listening to both games on the Lakers radio broadcasts, and both of these calls were questioned and criticized by the LAKERS ANNOUNCERS! Now Spiro Didas, (sp?)is a great announcer who's very unbiased, but Michael Thompson tends to be very pro-Laker, pro-Kobe, and EVEN HE questioned these calls.

Going back to UCLA for a second, over at TBL, they are trying to figure out why UCLA is getting all the calls this year - Sunday's no call takes the total to now 3 HUGE calls at the end of games that could have gone either way - but went their way... their possible explainations:

Is this the 100th year of UCLA basketball? Is the NCAA trying to get a final one for ailing John Wooden? Or is karma at play here, for the Bruins having lost the last two years in the Final Four to the eventual champion Florida Gators?

Q&A with Bob Delaney

Over at ESPN.com's page 2, Sam Alipour had a little Q&A session with current NBA referee Bob Delaney. Mr. Delaney if you've ever heard, used to work undercover in New Jersey trying to capture guys from the mob. This was mentioned a lot on message boards and a few blogs during the few days when no one knew who Tim Donaghy was yet. There was the speculation that perhaps Delaney had made the wrong guys mad, and his punishment was to fix games to help these mobsters out. Well, those speculations ended up being totally untrue and of course, you know the rest of the story. Here were a few of the questions and answers from this interview:

This may be hard for you to quantify, but what was the single most dangerous experience you faced?

It wasn't one particular situation. It's an ongoing thing. I'm wearing a wire in a jock strap between my legs everyday, knowing that if it's found on me ... in that world, informants die. You live with that cloud over you. If one wire wiggles out of place, if someone pats you on the belly or back, they find that thing. It's not like I had surveillance teams on me. In deep cover, that's impossible. And I have no credentials saying that I'm a cop. My identification said my name was Robert Allen Covert.

Covert. Wasn't that a bit of a risk?

It's a catchy name for an undercover guy, but back in the '70s before Watergate, that word wasn't common. It wasn't like we were being cutesy. We took a guy who died at birth, and I became that person. But today, it's obvious that people will think that's a pretty cool undercover name.

You put a lot of people away. Do you have any fear of retribution?

I'm no different than any cop who put someone away. Retribution could happen. I'm not naive. But I'm aware of my surroundings. I have security in place that I'm not going to discuss. Also, even though I work for the NBA, I have strong ties and still consider myself a part of N.J. state police. They're very helpful, as are other agencies, in terms of intelligence information and awareness of my situation.

In what ways did this experience make you a better referee?

The challenge is very similar: There's pressure, a lot going on, and decisions have to be made very quickly. Apparently, I'm attracted to that lifestyle. [Laughs] Also, I have an awareness that comes from my law-enforcement base: I recognize when the crisis may escalate, or players are at a point where it may become a fight. And people aren't happy to be arrested, nor are they happy to have a foul called on them, so I'm used to working with people who aren't pleased.

It's no secret that many ballers have an affinity for gangster tales like "The Godfather" and "Scarface." Do players ever ask you to regale them with stories?

Oh, yeah. After a game in L.A., I was doing tape review, and after I call a foul on Kobe, the announcer says, "Kobe's giving Delaney an earful about that call." In reality, Kobe came over to me during free throws to say: "What was it like wearing those wires all time? That must've been wild." And when Grant Hill was in Orlando, he came up to me and patted me down. He's like, "You still wired?" I'm like, "Yeah, and the last time I was wired, 30 people went to jail." You gotta laugh in this world, man. [Laughs] Shane Battier will always ask about what's real and what's fake in movies like "Training Day" or "The Departed."

That's pretty impressive stuff... It's always interesting to know more about the people you are used to booing.

Could it be:

In light of the news being reported today, maybe they finally got to him.