Annon
Years ago
BJ Anthony ejection - they got it wrong !!!!
The NBL has conducted a thorough review of the officiating in last night's Round 4 clash between the New Zealand Breakers and Adelaide 36ers.
In particular, Referees Manager Mal Cooper has centered his investigation on an incident involving Adelaide’s BJ Anthony and New Zealand’s Mika Vukona just before halftime.
"The referees were correct in issuing the initial Unsportsmanlike Foul on New Zealand’s Mika Vukona, as under the rules of an unsportsmanlike foul this was correctly assessed as a Hard Foul," Mr Cooper said.
“The subsequent reaction of Adelaide’s BJ Anthony was unnecessary and under the NBL guidelines regarding a “third player in” Anthony was penalised correctly by the officials with an unsportsmanlike foul. “
“The following fracas, with a number of players from both teams remonstrating resulted in an additional Unsportsmanlike Foul on Vukona. Based on the video evidence this Unsportsmanlike Foul may have been a little too harsh and could have been managed better by the referees.”
“Under the FIBA rules and the NBL rules, two Unsportsmanlike fouls on a player results in an automatic disqualification. Once the referees had issued a second unsportsmanlike foul on Vukona, they had no option but to disqualify him.”
“After some brief discussions between the three officials, they decided that if one player was to be disqualified then the other should be as well. Hence the decision to issue a double disqualification on Vukona and Anthony.”
“We got this one wrong. The more appropriate managing of this incident would have been to issue an unsportsmanlike Foul for the initial two incidents involving Vukona and Anthony respectively. The additional fracas should have been managed by restoring some calm and order and issuing a warning to both teams that any further incidents would have to be dealt with appropriately.”
“The referees involved in the game will undergo a performance review and be given individual feedback as part of the NBL’s commitment to improving performances.”
All games are reviewed from week to week and the Referee Management team will stand down a referee if they feel a performance is not up to a satisfactory standard.
