I mean, Virginia still probably would have won

But this replay review in the natty:

Made people like this:

In 2014, in a rather rambling column not worth linking, I wrote this:

One more way replay review is forever changing the game

I don’t remember which game I was watching last week, but it’s not that important. The point is I saw a play happening with more and more regularity since the use of replay in the NBA continues to increase. The play unfolds as some version of the following sequence: 

Player one goes up and grabs a rebound.

Player two comes from behind and pokes the ball away out of bounds.

Player one’s team is rewarded the ball, because he had control of it and then player two knocked it away.

But wait! They go to replay review. When this play is slowed down and looked at in HD, it appears that, in fact, the last person to technically touch the ball was player one. After player two poked the ball away, the ball rolled off player one’s fingertips before going out of bounds. The call is reversed!

Here’s my question; isn’t this the case every time anyone knocks a ball out of someone’s hands? I do admit this conundrum has been making me feel especially crazy. I tried to replicate it, but I’m not sure if my experiment yielded any usable results. I had Dirty Danny (that’s what we call him because he’s scared of shampoo and his hair is always greasy) hold a ball. I jabbed it, and we tried to tell who technically touched it last. Needless to say, we couldn’t. And, surprise, we don’t have high definition cameras in the loony bin. I called it a hospital, Mrs. Ratched. Your hair looks very nice today.

From my field tests, I did gather that it seems a jabbing or poking motion makes it less likely the defender will be the last person to touch the ball; sort of a jab, quick recoil, so that your finger is on the ball for as little time as possible. When the defender make more of a slap, follow through maneuver it is much more likely they will be the last person to touch the ball, and thus the offense would keep it even after the most scrutinous replay review. Such are the many delightful intricacies that replay allows discussion of among basketball fans, rather than tedious topics like Kevin Love’s outlet passes or James Harden’s Eurostepping.