The Dallas Mavericks’ protest of their most recent 127-125 loss to the Golden State Warriors has been resolved by the NBA. According to NBA writer Marc Stein, the NBA formally rejected the protest in a statement issued by the association.
“Dallas was not able to show — as required by under the standard for NBA game protests — that it was deprived of a fair opportunity to win the game, and the protest failed on that basis alone.”
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Asserted in the statement is that the controversial out of bounds call made by the referees was with 14 minutes remaining in the game, and the Mavericks thereafter took the lead twice in the final four minutes. This does not meet the aforementioned standard for game protests, and thus was the primary reason the protest failed. However, the NBA did not stop there, claiming that Mavericks Governor Mark Cuban was dishonest about the controversial play.
“Those public statements were inaccurate, and in its written submission in support of its protest, Dallas agreed that the referee signaled possession to Golden State.”
The statements referred to are tweets from Mark Cuban after the game that the referees originally awarded possession to Dallas and changed it to the Warriors during the timeout. This suggests that even the Mavericks knew the basis of their protest was not foundational.
In the end, the fact that the NBA denied the protest comes as little surprise, as precedent has rarely been established in seeing successful protests. For the Mavericks, it is just another failure in what is shaping up to be a very disappointing season.
Source: https:/www.goldenstateofmind.com
