SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — I was sitting courtside at Kaiser Permanente Arena’s “press row” last Sunday night to watch the Santa Cruz Warriors host the Austin Spurs, finishing up my caramel frappe with 4:33 left on the clock in the fourth quarter. Casey Hill opted to call a timeout late in the game to prepare his team for the final push, which, in most cases, would have been a smart and reasonable coaching move. The thing is, of course, this wasn’t like most cases.
In fact, this was the furthest thing from a typical basketball situation.