PBA deputy commissioner Eric Castro and technical committee head Bong Pascual were booed by the horde of San Miguel Beer fans while making their way out of the Smart Araneta Coliseum hardcourt in Game 1 of the PBA Philippine Cup finals last Sunday night.
Despite the brouhaha and mayhem brought by their controversial and late-game “offensive interference” call on Beermen big man Mo Tautuaa’s slam dunk, Castro and Pascual are holding their ground—they made the right decision to overturn the basket.
“I’m going to cite a rule sa rulebook natin, the reason why we had to correct the supposed basket interference that happened earlier sa 56 seconds ng fourth quarter. Interference occurs during a shot for a field goal to win and then I will cite J5 under our rulebook: An offensive player causes the back board to vibrate or grab the basket in such the way that the judgment of the official the ball has been caused to enter the basket,” Castro said. “As you’ve seen in the replay, when Mo dunked (in) the last 56 seconds, nahila niya iyong ring pababa but the contention of the coaching staff was iyong bola was straight and entered the ring.
“Regardless kung may tamaan siya na part ng ring, the fact na nahila niya iyong ring pababa is a violation already. Considered an offensive basket interference,” he added.
Pascual echoed Castro’s sentiments, saying: “Nasa PBA rule book iyon and the basket interference and goaltending also, ina-adapt naman natin talaga iyong sa FIBA. That’s the same. If there’s a direct impact on the shot, that’s a goaltending or basket interference.”
Tautuaa’s slam saw the ball bounce high off the rim before going in that gave SMB initially a 98-97 buffer in the last 56.1 ticks.
But a dead ball situation caused by a jump ball between Beerman veteran guard Chris Ross and TNT counterpart Jordan Heading allowed the technical officials to nullify the basket that left SMB trailing instead 96-97, only 6.2 seconds to go.
The Tropang 5G prevailed 99-96 to grab a 1-0 lead in the titular round.
“Then it happened na tuloy-tuloy iyong game, there was no dead ball and then around five seconds remaining there was a jump ball between (Jordan) Heading and Chris Ross, if I’m not mistaken. So, that was the only time that we could review, well, we’ve been reviewing it habang live ball but that was the only time we were able to announce it to our barker, the correction,” Castro said.
“So, bakit kami ang nag-initiate ng review, just like any goaltending violation, we can ask sa technical committee, and they can review it. It just so happened our officials were not able to make a call kaya sa amin, sa technical committee iyon bumagsak. So, that’s our simple explanation.”
Ultimately, SMB decided not to push through with a protest while Asia’s pioneering pro league vowed to keep the integrity of the game—and it will be tested if they learned their lessons tomorrow in Game 2 at the same venue.
