swiftbison2 said:I mean, I just think it’s a toss-up when you're calling that kind of play—it’s honestly tough to tell if he actually caught her during the fall, if it was just a graze, or if it was something else entirely. 🤷 You could tell immediately by how his closest Spanish friends reacted—they just let him walk right past them, basically standing there waiting for the inevitable boos from the crowd.
Yeah, he caught her because that pass was just plain garbage—totally poorly thrown—and then he ended up fumbling it under his feet since the ball itself was acting all awkward and unpredictable... just a mess, really.
The thing is—and this is what I was getting at when Gregory Ramos3 mentioned that the refs were a bit slow on the whistle—there’s that specific moment where everything just looks ugly. It’s one of those situations where the officiating gets sloppy, and suddenly the whole vibe of the game turns sour.
I’ve talked about this quite a bit before—you know, that whole thing where you see something, make an instant judgment call, and then actually have the guts to show everyone exactly what you decided—but apparently, the folks on this forum thought I was just being a comedian...
Look, I’m not exactly out here playing defense attorney for the refs—believe me, I know they can be a disaster—but you have to admit it isn't exactly easy. Especially when the stakes are high and the atmosphere in the stadium gets that certain kind of electric, high-pressure heat... it changes things.
Honestly, I called it from the jump—it was a double. I was watching it on TV, so there wasn't any doubt about what was actually happening right in front of me.
The real issue here is that after decades of broadcasting these games, our commentators still don't have a clue about the basic rules of handball—so then you've got everyone sitting at home in front of the TV just losing their minds.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve sat there in my local diner and watched people lose their minds—literally shouting at the TV, demanding to know what on earth the ref just called. And the funniest part? The official usually made the exact right call. It’s always the same thing: people acting like they’re experts because they have zero clue how the game actually works. Take the whole Cosic situation, for example—it’s a perfect case in point. You’ll have some guy at the next table acting absolutely stunned, genuinely baffled, as if he’s witnessing a glitch in the matrix, all because he thinks a seven-point play can only happen if the defense is out of position. He’s sitting there, eyes bulging, wondering how it could possibly be seven points when "the player wasn't in the zone" or whatever nonsense he's cooked up. Honestly, it's exhausting watching people argue with reality just because they don't understand the rules.