The NBA replay system is broken

Incorrect calls in back-to-back games against the Bucks raise questions about late-game officiating

It’s a time-honored tradition for fans, writers, and bloggers to complain or call out the officiating when it impacts the teams we root for and write about. Most of the time it’s a call that could have gone either way or that there were so many other plays along the way that it shouldn’t come down to that one play.

However, watching the late-game officiating Milwaukee Bucks have had over their last two games, there is only one conclusion: NBA officiating and replay rules are broken. There have been two incorrect defensive foul calls that the officials have admitted were wrong after the game, but weren’t changed because of the current NBA replay system and rules around it. Both plays ironically included Giannis Antetokounmpo, known as one of the best defensive players in the league, being called for the foul. One was against the Detroit Pistons on Ron Holland on Wednesday, the other against the Charlotte Hornets on LaMelo Ball yesterday. Both of these plays should have never been called fouls, and there’s no reason they couldn’t have been overturned by replay.

The sad truth is that there is a simple fix to these glaring flaws in the NBA’s officiating in the final two minutes: adopt and adapt the NFL’s rules for replay review within the game’s final two minutes. In the NBA’s case, instead of reviewing all scoring plays and turnovers, there would only be three instances in which an automatic replay would be triggered: on scoring plays when a foul is committed, a foul on the floor that leads sends a team into the bonus to shoot free throws, and a foul that leads to a player fouling out of the game. For those who worry it would annoyingly extend the end of a game, if the foul is clear and obvious, it would only take a couple of minutes for the officials and the replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey to confirm the call. There’s no reason not to let officials review pivotal calls to get it right.

Against the Detroit Pistons, Giannis was called for a foul on rookie Ron Holland at the end of regulation on a lob play with 1.2 seconds on the clock. The foul sent Holland to the free-throw line, where the Bucks were lucky to have a chance to win after Holland missed both free throws. After the Bucks won in overtime, the NBA released their last two-minute report and acknowledged that there was no foul; the contact after the block was incidental. It states that the official could review the timing of the so-called foul but not the foul itself.

With this new protocol, the play would have been reviewed and overturned, and the game still would have gone to overtime (barring a miracle heave from either side).

While the Bucks were lucky to still win that game against the Pistons, they weren’t so lucky yesterday against the Charlotte Hornets. With the Bucks already down by one with 1:07 to go after a make from Giannis, the Hornets came the other way, and LaMelo Ball hit a floater over Taurean Prince. Prince got called for the foul leading to a free throw for Ball. Doc did what all coaches are supposed to do and saved his challenge for a late-game situation and used it on that play. The challenge ended up failing and the Bucks lost a timeout and their challenge for the rest of the game.

Milwaukee overcame their four-point deficit in the final moments, with Pat Connaughton laying it in to give the Bucks a one-point lead with nineteen seconds left. Then the fateful play occurred. Charlotte put the ball into LaMelo’s hands, and Milwaukee responded by putting Giannis on him in the final seconds. As Ball tries to drive by on the elbow, he trips and falls to the floor, but the officials called Giannis for a foul on the floor, leading to two free throws for Ball.

Ball subsequently nailed both, leading to a Bucks loss after Giannis missed a game-winning jumper. It was clear as day that there was no contact and the only reason it wasn’t overturned was because Doc used his challenge just a little bit early.

Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer was the pool reporter on site who spoke with crew chief Curtis Blair after the game. This was their exchange:

QUESTION: What did you see on the foul called on Giannis with 7.3 seconds remaining?

BLAIR: During live play, Giannis was called for illegal leg-to-leg contact on the drive by Ball to the basket.

QUESTION: What was the final determination in confirming the call?

BLAIR: During live play, we called illegal leg-to-leg to contact. During the postgame review, when we looked at the play, there was no illegal contact on the play.

QUESTION: So if there was a challenge, which there was not at that point because Milwaukee didn’t have one available, that call would have been overturned?

BLAIR: Correct.

It is insane to me that an NBA team can lose a game on a blatantly missed call, and it can’t be reviewed because the coach didn’t have a challenge. Doc Rivers said it best during his post-game presser: “You can’t guess at the end of a game.”

Do you know what takes the guesswork out of it for the officials? Adding automatic replay on non-shooting fouls that lead to free throws (and the other situations I mentioned above).

It’s unbelievable that a US sports league heading into 2025 has such a bad replay and challenge system. Coaches and teams shouldn’t be punished for doing the right thing by holding onto their challenge late into the game only to be screwed over by an even worse call just a few seconds later. It’s utterly ridiculous that officials can make an objectively incorrect call and not even be allowed to fix it by review.

The most important thing for a referee is to get the right call, whether it’s made on the floor correctly or fixed later in a replay. Taking away a tool that other sports leagues allow their referees to use because a coach picked the slightly wrong time to use their challenge and got it wrong is just plain idiotic. We’ll see if these games are used as a push league-wide to implement the suggestions I’ve made, but it’s high time and long overdue that these changes are made.