I don't care if it's school ball, travel ball, YMCA ball, playground ball, college ball or pro ball. When you've played, you know the difference.
In Tuesday night's NBA playoff game between Boston and Chicago, Rajon Rondo got away with a mugging. Big-time. And it changed the game, and, perhaps, the series, in Boston's favor.
With Boston leading by two, Chicago's Brad Miller took an in-bounds pass near the end of overtime and drove down a ridiculously wide-open lane toward the basket. As he rose to take the shot, Rondo swept his hand across Miller's face, altering the momentum of the 290-pounder and sending him crumbling to the floor, his shot suddenly an afterthought as it fell harmlessly to the floor.Miller's upper lip swelled to the size of Angelina Jolie's, and he appeared dazed and in pain as he stepped to the free throw line and proceeded to miss the all-important first shot.
As the Boston faithful cheered and jeered wildly, Miller (shown at left in an AP photo, trying to stop the bleeding after Rondo's right cross) tried to miss the second shot intentionally, with the hope of Chicago grabbing the rebound and putting in the tying shot. But he missed the rim completely, resulting in a turnover, which all but sealed the win for the Celtics."I'm a little guy, so I had to go for the foul hard," said Rondo after the game. "I wasn't trying to go for his head, but I think he went up with his right hand and I tried to make sure he couldn't finish or get an and-one. It's as simple as that. I think I hit him in the head or something, but I went through his arm first, trying to get to the ball."
"I think I hit him in the head or something." OK, whatever. Except there was no chance for Rondo to get the ball. None. It was obvious when the foul occurred in real time, and far more evident once the replays were shown.
What the referees working the game saw from those replays, logical people will never know. Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro protested that Rondo's foul was flagrant -- which it was -- which would have given the Bulls the foul shots plus the ball. Replay after replay confirmed that Rondo whacked Miller across the face in a last-ditch, desperate attempt to prevent the easy shot.
But there's no way he went for the ball. Like I said, anybody who has ever played the game knows the difference. Doesn't take a genius.
It was the second time at that Rondo got away with robbery at a crucial point down the stretch.
At the end of regulation, as Chicago's Derrick Rose blew past him down the left side of the lane in an attempt to convert what might have been a game-winning shot, Rondo stuck his knee, ever so subtly, into Rose's thigh, sending Rose sprawling toward the end line. The ball rolled out of bounds, and the intermittently blind NBA refs ("Wait, who's the home team?") rewarded it to the Celts.
OK, that was a small thing, and Rondo pulled it off. But the clobbering that he got away with at the end of overtime never should have been allowed. His team is now up, three games to two, in this hard-fought series.
Playground players know what happened. The NBA needs officials who know it, too.
