Hey Now, We All Make Mistakes

It was a critical call on a critical play at a critical moment in what was arguably a critical game. With six seconds left in regulation, Kevin Durant’s heading for an easy layup, when…BAM!!...LaMarcus Aldridge flies in from behind and blocks Durant’s shot. Or did he? Referee Scott Foster called it goaltending, ruling that the ball hit the backboard prior to Aldridge’s hand contacting the ball. It was a bang-bang play, but the replay showed that Aldridge made contact with the ball a nanosecond prior to the ball touching the backboard. The replay was an academic exercise, of course, because the call wasn’t reviewable, and Blazer fans in attendance were apoplectic. WE WUZ ROBBED!!! That may well be true…or not. Did it determine the outcome of the game? Who knows? If the Blazers had taken care of business earlier in the game, Aldridge’s alleged goaltending would have been an annoying non-issue reduced to pointless water cooler debate the next morning. Perhaps if the Blazers hadn’t...