Utah Jazz: NBA Officials admit to missing egregious James Harden travel

The NBA’s officials came forward and admitted that they missed a crucial call in Monday’s contest between the Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets.

The disappointment that has been the 2018-19 Utah Jazz season only continued Monday night as the Jazz fell once again, this time to the Houston Rockets, a team they’d played quite well against in both previous meetings this season. After a horrible second quarter, the Jazz fought back honorably to take the lead by a point in the third quarter, and later tie the contest late in the fourth, but ultimately they fell short by a count of 102-97.

Of course, whenever you play the Houston Rockets, you know there’s going to be a fair share of antics. From flopping and flailing to over-exaggerating contact to duping of the officials in general, Houston has two of the all-time ‘greats’ in James Harden and Chris Paul.

Monday night’s bout was no exception as several questionable whistles (or lack thereof) were ever present in the contest, adding a further obstacle for the sputtering Jazz to deal with. However, of them all, one stood out as by far the most egregious, and it took Twitter absolutely by storm following the contest.

Late in the game, while the Rockets led by a mere three points, James Harden attempted a step-back three on which he was able to successfully draw a foul on Ricky Rubio and go to the line for three free throw attempts. He made two of those three, putting Houston up by five and, for all intents and purposes, ending the game.

Except that the shot and foul never should have even occurred. In order to get beyond the 3-point line, Harden tried to do one of his patented step-backs, except he maybe kind of sort of did TWO OF THEM AT ONCE! That’s right, Harden executed a never-before-seen step-back-step-back, or as most folks know it, a blatant travel. He easily took four steps between the gather and the actual shot itself before managing to draw the foul.

Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself below–

I don’t know if he was trying to do the Electric Slide or if he was auditioning for a role in Happy Feet, but whatever the case, that’s about as much of a travel as you can commit. Unfortunately, the officials on Monday night didn’t see it that way, much to the chagrin of Jazz fans and players. You can see a couple entertaining and eye-opening reactions from Rudy Gobert and Ricky Rubio, respectively, below–

Players across the league have expressed frustration with inconsistent officiating and many, including most recently several members of the Los Angeles Lakers, have alluded directly to James Harden and the Rockets as being significant beneficiaries. I definitely think there’s long been an argument that Harden gets too many whistles and gets away with mind-boggling things, and this blatant miscue by the part of the referees is an excellent example.

Though it felt quite hollow, the NBA Officials Twitter account later went on to admit that they missed the call, as you can see in the tweet below–

Not only did they fail to mention an obvious ‘step 4’, but my response to this is something along the lines of “No duh.” It was an inexcusable missed call that essentially ruined Utah’s chances of a comeback bid in the contest.

After seeing the referees admit their mistake, Donovan Mitchell reacted in GIF form about as accurately as could be–

Although the missed call was an embarrassing and costly oversight on the part of the officials, though, the Jazz can’t blame that for the loss. As annoying as the officiating was, particularly that no-call in crunch time, Utah should first look inward at their repugnant 23 turnovers and shooting marks of 39 percent from the field, 28.6 percent from the perimeter and 74.2 percent from the free throw line. The Jazz can’t look for excuses, they simply have to be better.

In losing this contest to Houston, they squandered what had otherwise been an impeccable defensive performance and kept up with what’s been a common theme of inconsistency and an inability to put together a complete game on both ends of the floor.

Unfortunately, they won’t have much time to sort things out before they hit the hardwood against a host of daunting foes. They’ll take on the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday before facing the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. If recent trends continue, and the Jazz are unable to bounce back from discouraging calls and poor play, things could get quite ugly to round out the week.