The Collegian

Media Credit: INDENVERTIMES.COM

Any sport with judges, umpires or referees lends itself to human error.

Sadly, this was the case last Saturday night in Dallas, when the home team Mavericks fell dramatically to the Denver Nuggets (both of the NBA) on a controversial call that may well have dashed the last of Dallas' playoff hopes.

The Nuggets who now lead the series 3-0, were down by two with time about to expire.

The Mavericks, who will now need to win four straight to avoid being eliminated, something that has never been done in the NBA playoffs, attempted to foul Nugget's star forward Carmelo Anthony with their last remaining foul before reaching the penalty.

This foul would have forced Denver to take the ball out of bounds, a common practice late in NBA games.

What wasn't so common was that the Maverick's attempt to use their last foul was not recognized by the official.

Anthony fought through the contact, set his feet, and drained a three-pointer, winning the game and Dallas hope in the process.

What might have been the most unexpected event of the entire situation happened later that night, when the NBA issued a formal announcement admitting that the referees blew the call.

Although this was essentially putting salt on an open wound for the Mavericks, I believe that it was a classy move for the NBA to actually admit the folly.

After all, when the game is left up human judgment, sometimes you're going to end up with human error.

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