OAKLAND – Warriors coach Steve Kerr knows what he saw and knew it was a violation missed by the officiating crew.
Kerr on Monday went temporarily insane at time of the no-call on the obvious travel by Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook in the final seconds of the Thunder’s win over the Warriors in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
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By Tuesday morning the coach had gotten over it enough to mock the fact that the NBA had ruled that Westbrook had indeed committed a traveling violation.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! That’s awesome,” Kerr exclaimed in phony delight of the no-call that occurred with 17.2 seconds remaining and the Warriors trailing 105-102.
Westbrook called a timeout, which was granted, allowing the Thunder to maintain possession. The Warriors never scored again.
Some 15 hours later, Kerr expressed more frustration with the NBA than with the officials.
[RATTO: Call needed to be made: Westbrook traveled or Klay fouled him]
He clearly finds no satisfaction in being informed after the fact that an error had been made. The league issues a Last Two Minute Report in which every call or non-call over the final two minutes is examined and either validated or, as in this case, acknowledged as a missed call.
“I don’t like the practice,” Kerr said. “I appreciate the NBA trying to be transparent, but it’s unfair to the officials. I feel like it throws them under the bus. They have an impossible job; they really do. And there are going to be bad calls both ways, every game. They’re never going to be perfect. They’re doing the best they can.
“I don’t think there’s any point, personally, in exposing bad calls. It doesn’t serve a purpose to me.”
