The basketball team, Portlaoise Panthers, have decided not to partake in the last 0.3 seconds of the Division One playoff match against their rivals, Limerick Sport Eagles, citing the judgement as being utterly contrary to the spirit of the game. Having been defeated with a narrow margin of 80-78 at St Mary’s Hall, their home turf, on March 23rd, the end of the game left the home supporters greatly affronted.
Limerick’s own Jason Killeen, an ex-captain of Ireland and a past US college player for Winthrop and Augusta State, was deemed to have been fouled just as he was shooting at the sound of the buzzer. Though the teams were levelled, Killeen was permitted to take his free throws, managing to score both, therefore securing the victory for his team.
An outraged Portlaoise contested that after time had run out, free throws shouldn’t have been permitted since technically, the game was over. This grievance extended behind the scenes, culminating in a formal request for a rematch, which the National Appeals Committee (NAC) originally supported.
However, Basketball Ireland put forth a new announcement on Tuesday stating that, while the NAC determined the game should be replayed all over, this appeal right sadly was mistakenly given by the National League Committee (NLC) as refereeing decisions made in-game cannot be reversed.
The NLC stated the game would not be rescheduled entirely, but the concluding 0.3 seconds of the quarter-final must be played this week, with Basketball Ireland to coordinate with clubs for scheduling. The 0.3 seconds refers to the least time a team may take for a shot after a free throw as per the Trent Tucker rule, named after a late score in a 1990 NBA match, which says a player must have 0.3 seconds or more to control the ball for a shot following a throw-in or rebound after the last free throw.
Portlaoise, however, in a statement issued on Wednesday, firmly expressed their disagreement to play the last 0.3 seconds, stating this was not the basis of their protest.
Our claim was established and reinforced solely based on video evidence demonstrating that the concluding foul call occurred 1.6 seconds following the buzzer. Although the NAC remained contrary to this claim, they issued a replay considering a supposed leftover of 0.3 seconds.
However, this was not our contention. The NLC initially bypassed their own system of appeals, only later to modify their stance asserting that ‘our plea to the NAC was admitted erroneously’.
We would like to explicitly affirm that we complied with the appropriate procedures as stipulated by Basketball Ireland at every stage, yet we sense a lack of equal treatment reciprocated. We acknowledge the upheaval this has induced for the other clubs in the Division 1 playoffs and we didn’t envisage this protraction caused by our administrative body.
We fundamentally argue that the instruction to replay 0.3 seconds of our quarter-final contradicts the ethos of basketball and as mentioned earlier, this was not our appeal’s fundamental ground. We wouldn’t ever request or anticipate Limerick Sport Eagles, whom we greatly admire, to commute to Portlaoise to participate in the residual 0.3 seconds. This wouldn’t serve anyone’s interests and wouldn’t conform to the principles of basketball. We will unequivocally decline if we are directed to commence the match for the remaining 0.3 seconds.