There's no question that this was a horrible call by Bennett Salvatore. Sure, if you're a lifelong Pacers fan, to you it may have looked like the foul was committed on the floor. But to the rest of the basketball world, that play most certainly should have resulted in two free throws for Devin Harris. Was it such an egregious error though on the part of Salvatore as to warrant the display that we see here from Avery Johnson?
It turns out that the likely reason for this uncharacteristic outburst from Avery is that he has a history of being personally [screwed] by this official. Salvatore was the one who gave Dwyane Wade some very undeserved free throws at the end of Game 5 of the 2006 NBA Finals. So when Avery saw a similarly atrocious call by the same official-- even in a regular season game in November -- he just snapped.
Personally, I love the fact that Avery still remembers how some questionable officiating may have been partly to blame for his team losing out on a championship in 2006. He never got the chance to let Salvatore have it for making that ridiculous call, so it's nice to see Avery take full advantage of the opportunity this time during a meaningless game early in the season.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Johnson is a cry baby...just like his boss
Posted at 4:49PM on Nov 24th 2007 by ron bitonti
2. AJ has every right to get mad that it wasn't a shooting foul, but he didn't had to go too far to get himself ejected.
Posted at 4:53PM on Nov 24th 2007 by Shauna
3. Bennett Salvatore will never be forgotten around these parts. We should admit as Mavs fans that Dallas blew that series. If Dirk makes the free throws in game 3 and Josh makes his in game 5 we would be having this discussion.
Posted at 5:20PM on Nov 24th 2007 by Jimmy
4. Re: the "undeserved" free throws from Game 5, I finally changed my mind on those last week after reading these posts from TrueHoop:
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-28-305/The-Salvatore-Side-of-the-Story---Crucified--in-the-2006-Finals.html
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-28-312/Reaction-to-Tales-of-Bennett-Salvatore-and-Game-5.html
Posted at 11:32AM on Nov 25th 2007 by Matt W.
5. The best part is that Avery is doing all that screaming in that falsetto voice he speaks in. I bet it amps up to a squeak when he gets angry.
Posted at 11:42AM on Nov 25th 2007 by Don Dada
6. Salvatore should be suspended just like Joey Crawford. He has a personla vendetta against the Mavs and it's so sad how the NBA ignores the officiating problems when it was prpven over the summer the system is BROKEN!
Posted at 11:43AM on Nov 25th 2007 by Jason(Dallas)
7. Bennett Salvatore is not only disliked in Dallas, but in many, many, if almost all NBA cities, with maybe the exception of Miami. He is just like Joey Crawford. Their style of officiating is simple. Hey I am the only star on the court and the game and the fans are mearly a (fill in the blank) afterthought. He is an absolutely lousy official. The very best officials are those that, after you have seen a well called game, you ask "Who were the officials?" That is the mark of true professional officials which Crawford and Salvatore can never be.
Suspend him, or better give him a desk job monitoring missed paperwads in trash cans in Nome, AK!
Posted at 12:59PM on Nov 25th 2007 by GC
8. the coach is cry baby just like is commy boss grow up dallas,just because your guys cant make free throws and win a championship u wanna start blaming people,now i know were cuban gets it.
Posted at 12:30AM on Nov 27th 2007 by ken
9. I saw the game, i have followed all the games on the mavs for 5 years. That official is being personal, not calling a ridiculiously obvious foul. Avery had every right to get in his face, and he should have 3 hits on that official for being stupid and abusing his power. Just like alot of police officers, at least the ones i've had encounters with.
Posted at 11:44PM on Nov 27th 2007 by shorty61989too