Ask the CEO

Published on March 31, 2008 under American Basketball Association (ABA) News Release

Question from James in Barre, VT (and many others): Would you please explain what happened and the decisions made at the end of the Manchester/San Diego game at the Playoffs? (This question was asked in a variety of ways. If you attended the game or watched the game on PlayON! Sports, it was an amazing conclusion to a great game).

Answer: Everyone. Sorry for the delay in responding to your questions. Just returned from a fabulous Final 8 Championship Playoffs - and any of four teams could easily have won the Championship. As you know, Vermont defended its title with a hard-fought, close win over a very talented San Diego Wildcats team.

Now, the incident. With just a few seconds to go in regulation time, Manchester tied the score. With virtually no time on the court, SD went down, took a shot, missed, and a player tipped in the missed shot. The referee said the shot was good - San Diego left the court and headed to their bus. Manchester (and many others) were very upset, feeling that the tip-in was after the clock hit zero. One players rushed off the court (unhappy) and pushed a ref; a coach pushed a ref - and there was a lot of yelling. The refs ran off the court also. The crowd, players, everyone thought they were leaving and that the game was over with San Diego the winner. Actually, the refs were going to the monitor that was located at the end of the court to see the last shot and tip-in. The monitor showed that the tip-in was after the clock had expired, but the ABA rule book does not have a provision for overturning the referee's final call. After looking at the monitor and replay, it was clear that the clock had expired and I made an on-court ruling that the game was a tie. While this made one team happy, and the other unhappy - my feeling was that the game should be decided on the court. We called San Diego back, gave both teams time to warm-up and decided to play an overtime period. However, there was no excuse for the player to push the ref under any circumstances and he was ejected. There was no excuse for a coach to push a ref and a technical was called giving SD two shot (they made one). And since it was the start of a new period (overtime), they jumped ball rather than possession - and SD ended up winning a very closely contested match. I will have to say that it was one of the most exciting 15 minutes ever in the ABA. You cannot imagine the passion from the teams, other teams, players , coaches, fans. Electric in any way. If you have a chance to see the tape on the PlayOn! Sports archives, do it. ABA action at its best. And thank you all for your great interest. If you have a question, email conniejoenewman@aol.com.

Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.

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