Goat ref or too involved and likely to be assassinated today?

[Kblaze8855]

I’d like to tell you a bit about one of many old-school refs from back before they took shit. A great many have good stories but I’m gonna stick to one.

Richie Powers. He was the head of all NBA officials in the mid to late 70s. The league hated him. The other refs ended up hating him because he wouldn’t back a strike at one point. But all he cared about was the game and making sure refs didn’t **** it up. He wanted the players to decide who won not his officials. But it got him in trouble a few times.


The most historically significant was him taking it upon himself not to basically hand the Suns game five of a finals. A few seconds left in a tied game Paul Silas of the Celtics sees they recovered a loose ball looks right at Powers and calls time out.

Problem is, they didn’t have any timeouts. And he disregarded it. He didn’t want to give the suns a free throw to win a finals game on his whistle. As he later put it to a guy in Phoenix “ I’m not going to decide the finals on a technicality.”

People in Phoenix hated him for it for years. One suns coach ordered rings with “**** Richie powers” on it as they later lost the series.

But it’s not like that ended the game. Today fans would jump on Twitter and claim he rigged it for the Celtics dynasty to continue. Problem is….


In double OT Hondo hits what would be the game winner.







There’s time on the clock. You see it and I see it. All of Boston pretended they didn’t see it, including the timekeeper who let the clock hit zero so the fans storm the court as the players ran off.

but that ref under the basket you can see immediately leaping into action to restart the game is Richie. He had no instant replay to help so he couldn’t see there were two seconds left, but he gave them one second because he knew they should still have a chance. Upon fans hearing he gave them another second this happens






A Celtic fan attacks him. He attacks the guy who made the executive decision not to give the suns a free-throw to win the game in regulation.


so I guess they forgot he saved their season. Anyway, the outrage of the uncalled time out Boston didn’t have being fresh in the sun’s mind they go to Richie during the dead ball and ask for a time out knowing they don’t have it either. Since it’s a tactical move and not a mistake, he allows it and gives Boston the technical free-throw and let the suns advance the ball. They go up two. That’s how it’s supposed to work. You can call a timeout you don’t have. It’s just a technical. By the rules, he should’ve given the Celtics the time out with the tie and given the suns a FT so the Celtics were given the ball down one. He decided to let it go to OT. And later…gives the Suns the option to trade court position for a free throw. The result is one of the most famous calls in history





A third overtime now. Anyway, Boston wins in three overtimes and they go on to win the series. But of course, the suns from that time are forever salty they didn’t get a chance to win game five in regulation with the technical free-throw.



After all that you figure he would stay out of the news, but no

[Kblaze8855]

In the late 70s when they started trying to modify defenses against the zones, he thought the rules were too arbitrary and basically left it up to each ref to decide how the game would be played. He didn’t want that. He wanted clearly defined rules that put it in the hands of the players and the coaches. So he just went to the coach of the Hawks and the Nets before game and told them they were allowed to play zone that day. He wasn’t going to control the game. The league was not amused

The furor over the use of the zone defenses began last week when Richie Powers, the senior N.B.A. official, said he would permit the Atlanta Hawks and the Nets to use zone defenses in violation of the rule. His apparent objective was to force a showdown on the viability of the rule.

Powers Fined $2,500
Powers had said, “I've been fighting against this rule over the years because of its difficulty in enforcement and the fact that it's easily circumvented by coaches when they choose.”


Larry O'Brien, the N.B.A. commissioner, reacted by fining Powers $2,500 and suspending him without pay for three games.
Powers met with O'Brien and Simon Gourdine, the deputy commissioner, yesterday. After the meeting, the N.B.A. issued this statement:
“Powers’ restated his admission that he had exceeded his authority in his failure to enforce league procedure with regard to zone defenses. In addition, he assured them there would be no repetition of this conduct in the future.



“Powers said he fully accepted the three‐game suspension without pay, but asked for a review of the $2,500 fine. O'Brien will take his request under advisement.”


Powers is scheduled to resume work on Saturday.

[BarberSchool]

As a lifelong member of the shunned cult of Zone defense advocates….

…. I already support this dude off GP.

[Kblaze8855]

And that still wasn’t it.

And what turned out to be the last straw he basically decided not to eject two guys after getting the third technicals. They were getting chippy and he gave them a double tech. He later said he didn’t know they already had two. You got extras back then. Refs would hand them out, kind of as a warning.

But he didn’t realize how many they had, and basically gave them another warning not realizing it meant they were supposed to be ejected. He realized his mistake, overruled the rule book and let them stay. Let the players decide the game, not the ref who ****ed up. He didn’t consider whatever they did ejection worthy, and he wouldn’t have given them the technical if it were at that point.

The team that lost file the protest with the league and the league took their side. They ordered the game restarted later. Take a look at this box score and see if you recognize anything weird


https://www.basketball-reference.com...811080PHI.html



See the name Eric money? He’s on both teams. That’s because by the time they could finish the protest and investigation and finish the game from where they should have been ejected he had been traded. That’s how he is the only player in the history of the nba to score for both teams.

Anyway, the whole thing was a cluster ****.

The league was sick of him and he retired.

I suppose he violated the main rule of officiating, which is don’t be noticed. Don’t be the story.

But I think I side with Richie in most of this. Referees don’t have the balls To make those decisions anymore. He didn’t give a **** if you fired him. He was doing what he thought was right.

[Kblaze8855]

As a lifelong member of the shunned cult of Zone defense advocates….

…. I already support this dude off GP.

it’s not like he was cheating. He stepped to both coaches before the game and told them to just go try to win and he would stay out of the way. It’s suspected he had done it many times before, but this time some media member overheard it and reported him to the league office while writing his story. Neither coach complained

[BarberSchool]

If the league didn’t sh!tcan Kenny Mauer during covid, I’d bet he may want to organize something amongst fellow fair-minded refs, that might be equally “for the cause” in this year’s bizarrely officiated playoffs.

[1987_Lakers]

Wasn't Kareem about to sign with the ABA, but George Mikan fvucked it all up by forgetting to give Kareem a check he had in his pocket or something like that?

[Jasper]

this ref as u call old school , op, is exactly how I judge dogs as a field judge.

common sense prevails

[Kblaze8855]

Wasn't Kareem about to sign with the ABA, but George Mikan fvucked it all up by forgetting to give Kareem a check he had in his pocket or something like that?

He had a million dollar check to close the deal but felt it was going so well he didn’t need the trump card. Gave the nba a chance and it was over. For a million cash and a promise to go to new york(home) he’d have gone ABA.

[Kblaze8855]

If the league didn’t sh!tcan Kenny Mauer during covid, I’d bet he may want to organize something amongst fellow fair-minded refs, that might be equally “for the cause” in this year’s bizarrely officiated playoffs.

Refs get paid so well they fear losing status now I bet. It’s too good a job to risk for principle.

[FultzNationRISE]

A Celtic fan attacks him. He attacks the guy who made the executive decision, not to give the suns a free-throw to win the game and regulation.

That guy would def be an ISH poster today.

[SATAN]

5 stars. Good thread.

[FultzNationRISE]

But the refusal to cheat, the refusal to allow shortcuts… LeIntegrity would be proud

[warriorfan]

i didn’t read any of this but i’m gonna bring back antonio.gif mañana

[Overdrive]

I’d like to tell you a bit about one of many old-school refs from back before they took shit. A great many have good stories but I’m gonna stick to one.

Richie Powers. He was the head of all NBA officials in the mid to late 70s. The league hated him. The other refs ended up hating him because he wouldn’t back a strike at one point. But all he cared about was the game and making sure refs didn’t **** it up. He wanted the players to decide who won not his officials. But it got him in trouble a few times.


The most historically significant was him taking it upon himself not to basically hand the Suns game five of a finals. A few seconds left in a tied game Paul Silas of the Celtics sees they recovered a loose ball looks right at Powers and calls time out.

Problem is, they didn’t have any timeouts. And he disregarded it. He didn’t want to give the suns a free throw to win a finals game on his whistle. As he later put it to a guy in Phoenix “ I’m not going to decide the finals on a technicality.”

People in Phoenix hated him for it for years. One suns coach ordered rings with “**** Richie powers” on it as they later lost the series.

But it’s not like that ended the game. Today fans would jump on Twitter and claim he rigged it for the Celtics dynasty to continue. Problem is….


In double OT Hondo hits what would be the game winner.







There’s time on the clock. You see it and I see it. All of Boston pretended they didn’t see it, including the timekeeper who let the clock hit zero so the fans storm the court as the players ran off.

but that ref under the basket you can see immediately leaping into action to restart the game is Richie. He had no instant replay to help so he couldn’t see there were two seconds left, but he gave them one second because he knew they should still have a chance. Upon fans hearing he gave them another second this happens






A Celtic fan attacks him. He attacks the guy who made the executive decision not to give the suns a free-throw to win the game in regulation.


so I guess they forgot he saved their season. Anyway, the outrage of the uncalled time out Boston didn’t have being fresh in the sun’s mind they go to Richie during the dead ball and ask for a time out knowing they don’t have it either. Since it’s a tactical move and not a mistake, he allows it and gives Boston the technical free-throw and let the suns advance the ball. They go up two. That’s how it’s supposed to work. You can call a timeout you don’t have. It’s just a technical. By the rules, he should’ve given the Celtics the time out with the tie and given the suns a FT so the Celtics were given the ball down one. He decided to let it go to OT. And later…gives the Suns the option to trade court position for a free throw. The result is one of the most famous calls in history





A third overtime now. Anyway, Boston wins in three overtimes and they go on to win the series. But of course, the suns from that time are forever salty they didn’t get a chance to win game five in regulation with the technical free-throw.



After all that you figure he would stay out of the news, but no

Ironically he decided the game. He didn't whistle by the rule book so he made a personal decision. If he handed the Suna the ft it would've been the rule book committee's decision that was just called by him. By him overruling that it was his decision and his alone.