What are the worst or most controversial officiating calls in sports history?

none | 6-10-2003 | battleknight24

[F16Fighter]

Easily, the Men's Olympic Basketball game between the USSR and the U.S. back in the late 70s/early 80s(?) when the officials kept giving the Ruskies the ball with no time remaining until they scored the winning points to win the Gold.

Anyone care to recap this event in a coherent factual manner? ;-)

[Alberta's Child]

If I remember correctly, it occurred exactly as you described but the puck left the crease without being in Hull's possession before the goal was scored. At the time, the rule was that a player coould have a skate in the crease before the puck, but only if he maintained full control over the puck.

The NHL issued a statement after the game that was an attempt to rationalize why the goal was not disallowed, and it was quite lame. They just didn't want to call back the winning goal in the Stanley Cup finals.

[Alberta's Child]

Anyone care to recap this event in a coherent factual manner?

It would take too long, but I saw a great documentary on this incident recently. After a careful review of the rules and of the events as they occurred, it was determined that the officials called that whole thing correctly!

One of the major causes of confusion was that the off-court officials sounded the buzzer in an attempt to keep the referee from re-starting the game -- they had to reset the clock after time had been called with a few seconds left. As the referee is handing the ball to the Russian at the baseline, you can clearly hear the sound of the horn in the background as the off-court officials tried to get his attention.

The one legitimate complaint that the U.S. had was that the officials did not speak English and therefore could not explain their actions at the time.

[F16Fighter]

"After a careful review of the rules and of the events as they occurred, it was determined that the officials called that whole thing correctly!

Wow! Well I'll be...

[Alberta's Child]

I couldn't believe it myself. But in the documentary they described exactly why the officials had to go back and re-start the clock on two different occasions.

The real blame for that loss goes to the two U.S. players who allowed the Russian to heave the ball almost the length of the court to a Russian player for a game-ending shot. They both leaped up with the guy at the receiving end of the long pass, but they timed their jumps badly and he ended up getting the ball with enough time to score the winning basket.