Well, according to the NBA, that never happened.
The league rescinded the flagrant foul on Monday, essentially cleaning O'Neal's record for the rest of the playoffs and admitting that the referee screwed up — badly. But what the league couldn't do on Monday was go back in time, make the correct call, and play the rest of the game as if a personal foul — and not a flagrant foul — was committed in the third quarter.
Would the Celtics have won the game had the correct call been made in the first place? Probably not, but the call did greatly swing momentum in Miami's favor.
You may also remember a certain Celtics forward (who's pretty good, by the way) who set a pick, absorbed a rather hard shoulder from Dwyane Wade, exchanged a few words in what would be considered a tame meeting (even by NBA standards) but was given his second technical foul of the game and was forced to leave with 7 minutes left in the game. That was Paul Pierce, who had 19 points, and probably shouldn't have been booted from a playoff game.
But he was, and the league decided to stick with those calls and not take them back. Maybe the NBA will start calling technical fouls on every single player who utters a swear, or maybe, just maybe, referee Ed Malloy got it wrong.
So when you look at the punishment the Celtics had to face, between the O'Neal flagrant foul, the Pierce ejection and the fact that LeBron James won't be suspended, despite breaking a black-and-white rule about leaving the bench during an altercation, you have to wonder if it's time the officials started facing some punishment for their mistakes.
Should the NBA suspend referees for making bad calls? Share your thoughts below.
Sunday, May 1: How many games will the Celtics-Heat series go?
Should NBA referees be suspended for poor officiating in playoff games?online survey
