TNT governor Pato Gregorio and team manager Virgil Villavicencio complains about the inadvertent whistle to the PBA deputy director for basketball operations Eric Castro. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
TNT may have gotten the win in Game 4, but that won’t what coach Nash Racela thought was a glaring miscues by the referees on Wednesday night.
The usually calm mentor blew a gasket midway in the second quarter when a referee blew a whistle after Alex Cabagnot stole the ball from Kelly Williams.
Naturally, the players halted to wait for the official’s verdict, but it never came as Arwind Santos leaked out to the other side and scored on the easy dunk to give San Miguel a 42-41 lead.
Referees explained that it was an inadvertent whistle, infuriating the KaTropa camp, including governor Pato Gregorio and team manager Virgil Villavicencio.
“I don’t know how you do that,” Racela said, as his voice turned from his usually composed to a now serious tone.
Racela said that as far as he knows, plays should be halted if there is an inadvertent whistle and one team should not be allowed to take advantage of the confusion.
“I think – I don’t know and I will ask them – but if there’s an inadvertent whistle, you need to stop them and not let them have the two points where the other team will even dunk because it’s a game-changer,” he said.
Racela acknowledges that there’s no perfectly officiated game and the referees are also prone to human error, but the referees could have at least owned up to their mistakes.
“I understand that sometimes, referees would commit mistakes, whether intentional or not. But, if you’re wrong, correct the issue,” he said. “We heard it from the other side in a noisy coliseum. So you should stop it and not give them the two points. I don’t know what he was thinking.”
Fortunately, that call didn’t really affect the final count for the game, which ended in a 102-97 victory for TNT to equalize the 2017 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals.
Game 5 is on Friday, still at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.