Utah Jazz: Ingles, Australia Were Robbed in Medal Bid

Utah Jazz guard-forward Joe Ingles and the Australian national hoops team were jobbed by FIBA officials in the Bronze Medal Final at the Olympics.

It’s become the longest-running joke in international basketball, but with national pride on the line on a worldwide stage, nobody is laughing. Olympic referees, who are provided (perhaps bought and paid for is the more appropriate phrase) by FIBA, basketball’s international governing body, are notoriously unpredictable.

That’s at the best of times; at worst, they’ve wrongly impacted the results of games and affected the final medal standings in high-profile international tournaments with head-scratching calls.

Such was the case on Sunday when that unpredictability cost Utah Jazz wing Joe Ingles and the Australian national hoops squad their first-ever Olympic medal.

With the Aussies holding a one-point lead with less than 10 seconds remaining and needing one final defensive stop to capture the bronze, Spanish guard Sergio Rodriguez took the ball to the basket with Boomers star Patty Mills defending. Rodriguez unnaturally side-stepped into Mills’ body, but the San Antonio Spurs guard backed off and there was minimal contact on the play.

Nevertheless, the official blew the whistle, gifting Spain two free threes, the lead and, inevitably, the bronze medal when Australia failed to get a shot up on the final play.

It was the second egregious call to work against Australia in the final minute alone–Aron Baynes was called for a foul that sent Pau Gasol to the line on the previous play. It was a call that Baynes’ teammate Andrew Bogut labeled an “arm-bar foul,” and inspired him to call the entire situation with the officials “ridiculous.”

Australia was robbed in bronze medal game. Horrible call ... and late whistle, too ... gave Spain the winning FTs. Just a disgrace.
— Chris Sheridan (@sheridanhoops) August 21, 2016

Great Bronze Medal but feeling for Aussies right now. A mistake when official anticipates a whistle and it's clear Patty Mills did not foul.
— Fran Fraschilla (@franfraschilla) August 21, 2016

Mills was more measured in his appraisal of the officiating, choosing to focus on the more positive aspects of his team’s Olympic run—

"“Things go your way sometimes, and things don’t go your way sometimes. I think the biggest thing is just understanding how much pride and passion each and every one of these boys had to be able to put on the green and gold, because this is what it’s all about: being able to step out on the floor and leave everything on the floor for your country. We just hope that everyone back home was able to feel like they were on the journey with us, because it was one hell of a journey.”"

While I appreciate a high-level athlete handling disappointment with poise and class, I’m with Bogut on this one. Australia’s experience in Rio de Janeiro may have been “one hell of a journey,” as Mills describes it, but the journey’s ultimate objective was to capture that first medal.

Thanks in large part to FIBA officials, they were unable to do so.

Sure, it was just the Bronze Medal Final and the best team still brought home the gold, but there have been times when that wasn’t the case. In the 1972 Gold Medal Final, Team USA was dealt its first-ever Olympic loss when confusion at the scorers table and among the game’s referees ultimately resulted in gold for the Soviet Union.

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The fact that American coach Mike Krzyzewski (and all the other coaches) has been forced to make the erratic nature of FIBA officials and how his players should deal with their miscues a major part of his game plans and coaching process shouldn’t be thing.

Coaches should need only to game plan for their opponents. Not some renegade third party with an agenda of their own. FIBA needs to do better, both in terms of getting the best officials on the floor and holding them accountable, as well ensuring that every team playing internationally is getting a fair shake.

Occasional human error is one thing. Gross negligence is another matter entirely.

But until FIBA gets serious about ensuring fair competition, teams like Australia and people like Ingles, arguably the best-performing Jazzman in Rio and one of the more visibly shaken players at the game’s conclusion, will be forced to stand idly by as their fates are decided by unforced errors.