The NBA's board of governors this week voted to expand the league's use of instant replay in certain scenarios, beginning this upcoming season. The two instances where the officials would have the additional discretion to go to a replay would be where they needed to confirm whether a shot was a two- or three-point field goal, or if there was a clock malfunction during a play that concluded with no time left (0:00) at the end of any quarter or overtime period.
Most fans would welcome the additional opportunities for the officials to ensure they made the correct call, but Lakers' coach Phil Jacksonquestioned whether it's something that's really necessary.
"We've been playing with the 3-point line, what, 30 years? There are mistakes that happen, and there are 2-pointers that are missed. But that's also part of the game. Guys step on the out of bounds line, guys are in the 3-second lane too long, guys hang on the rim - there are a lot of things like that."
In other words, you could use replay to determine what went down in a whole laundry list of game situations, but it may not be exactly practical to do so. In fact, Phil is concerned that it might increase the length of your typical game.
"The mechanics of it is always interesting, how that's going to work out," Jackson said. "I think football's been caught in a dilemma where they end up having situations that have extended their games perhaps 15 extra minutes. I'm sure ours is going to be fraught with typical details."
Fans in the arena definitely are not patient when it comes to officials taking their time to figure out what the correct call should be. But if their team was the one that was going to lose the game if the wrong call was made, they're likely to stick around for as long as it takes to make sure the officials get it right.
