It's really interesting to me the way the various news outlets covered Steve Javie's blown call against the Clippers.
The AP Story does not say word one about it - it's like nothing significant happened on that play. The fact that the AP recap is featured on NBA.com probably has a little to do with that. It's also funny that the NBA is willing to come down hard on players based on replay evidence (see Bryant, Kobe) but completely ignores the evidence when an official screws the pooch.
Jason Reid of the LA Times calls it a bad call, but a little too diplomatically for my tastes. "TV replays, however, seemed to indicate that Mobley should have shot three free throws." The Zapruder film 'seemed to indicate' that there was a second gunmen on the grassy knoll. TV replays clearly and unequivocally proved that Mobley should have shot three free throws.
The Houston Chronicle is pretty funny. Jonathon Feigen writes "...Rafer Alston smacked Cuttino Mobley dangerously close to the 3-point line. Fortunately for the Rockets, Mobley was ruled to have been past the line."
What? Dangerously close? That's the best you can do? Does the fact that you write for the Houston paper preclude you from stating the obvious? Would it damage the delicate sensibilities of the Houston public to realize that their beloved Rockets benefited from a horrible call? "He was close, but the refs said he was past it." Um... sure. But he wasn't, and everyone who saw it knows that.
I don't get it. It was a big play, it was the play of the game, it's a story. Why do these guys insist on pussy-footing around it? Report what happened.