Samaki Walker: Missed foul call on LeBron affects NBA's integrity

It was the missed call heard around the world.

The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers were tied at 105-105with four seconds left. LeBron James had the ball, drove to thebasket and got all the way to the rim for a game-winning layupattempt and... Jayson Taytum committed what was a clear foul toseemingly everyone in America except the ones that matter — thereferees.

No call was made, and LeBron had a wave of reactions —disbelief, despair, pain, anguish. And while some have criticizedit as being an Oscar-worthy performance, many others believed that,in the words of Public Enemy, he had a right to be hostile.

This marked the fourth time in the past few weeks that Lakersplayers and fans believe a late-game call or non-call by thereferees has gone against them and ultimately cost them thegame.

Afterward, Eric Lewis, the lead official in the Lakers’controversial loss to the Celtics, and the NBA admitted thatTatum fouled LeBron.

In addition, the National Basketball Referees Association postedon Twitter early Sunday evening.

"Like everyone else, referees make mistakes. We made one at theend of last night's game and that is gut-wrenching for us," theNBRA said. "This play will weigh heavily and cause sleepless nightsas we strive to be the best referees we can be."

Like everyone else, referees make mistakes.We made one at the end of last night’s game and that isgut-wrenching for us. This play will weigh heavily and causesleepless nights as we strive to be the best referees we canbe.https://t.co/WyN8QVuTOl

But does this admission really help anything? Should somethingbe put in place so this doesn’t continue to happen? Does thisnegatively affect the integrity of the NBA as a whole?

I caught up with former Los Angeles Laker and NBA championSamaki Walker to dissect this issue.

Etan Thomas: What were your first thoughts onwatching the missed call on LeBron there at the end of regulationagainst the Celtics?

Samaki Walker: "Initially when I saw it in liveplay, to be honest, I didn’t really know if it was a foul or not.But once I watched the replay, it completely confirmed that it wasdefinitely a foul and the non-call was pretty much egregious.You've got three refs on the court, and that one ref on thebaseline was literally looking directly at the play. He had theperfect angle to see exactly what happened, and he swallowed hiswhistle. Listen, we played. We know refs miss calls. It happens.But the way technology has evolved, the refs could call up toheadquarters and make sure they get the call right quickly so itdoesn’t even slow down the game. This problem could be easilyfixed.

"That last play was an opportunity for LeBron to add anotherpiece to his already incredible career. We should be talking aboutthat last play in terms of LeBron being aggressive in driving tothe basket, how he didn’t settle for the jumper, to lead his teamto victory. Instead, we’re talking about the refs, and that’s justnot what the conversation should be about."

Etan: Yeah, and there’s a lot to discuss withthis. The NBA came out with the report afterward saying that therefs did in fact miss the call and LeBron should’ve been awardedtwo free throws. And I don’t know what good that really does afterthe fact. They’re just admitting what everyone already knew. Toyour point, they need to change something so they can have the callquickly reviewed and get the call right there.

Walker: "I agree 100 percent, and the fact thatwe do have this technology, if the refs feel as if they didn’t seeit — they’re humans; they could’ve simply missed it or are notsure, and that’s fine, we understand human error — but don’tcome together and guess. There is an easy solution to this becauseit impacts the integrity of the league. They could have another setof eyes watching in real time, and they tell them no problem weslowed it down, this is the correct call. This could all happen andthe game not even be slowed paused or slowed down."

LeBron is furious he didn't get this foulcall at the end of the game 😳 pic.twitter.com/hANldRDGCo

Etan: You said it impacts the integrity of theleague. Could you go into more detail about what you meant bythat?

Walker: "This is what I meant by that: So nowthat gambling has legally entered the NBA, it’s even more difficultfor certain narratives to not start floating around. It just is,and this is an issue that the league has to deal with at facevalue.

"Everyone has seen the Tim Donaghy documentary, and that’simmediately what runs through people’s minds when a bad call ofthis magnitude happens. It’s bad PR. The NBA doesn’t want thosenotions even going through anyone’s mind. That’s why they need tofix this immediately. The NBA has to either hold these refs moreaccountable publicly — not in private, but publicly — or they haveto utilize technology to not allow this to happen because publicperception is everything. The public needs to be reassured andconfident that the NBA is doing everything in its power to rectifythis issue."

Etan: So either you’re a part of the solution,or you’re a part of the problem.

Walker: "Exactly, and this is a problem we canrectify. Let’s have a checks-and-balances system. And to yourearlier point, what good does it do to say we missed the call afterthe fact? That doesn’t help anything."