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.