The NBA decided to review Lebron’s historic performance at the Madison Suqar Garden last Wednesday and decided to take away his 10th rebound and awarded it to Ben Wallace instead.
James scored a season-high 52 points and had 11 assists Wednesday in the Cavaliers’ 107-102 victory at New York. He was believed to have a triple-double when he grabbed what went down as a 10th rebound with less than 2 seconds left.
The NBA usually reviews calls at each game and adjust stats. However it took them two days to make this adjustment and it might be fueled by the heated remarks from Cavs owner Dan Gilbert late Thursday in which he called Stern’s decision to shun Williams “stupidiculous, idillogical and preposterageous.” Also, Cavs General Manager Danny Ferry said that Stern “maybe doesn’t appreciate how important Mo has been to our team.”
The NBA decided Wallace had controlled the ball and passed it to James. The NBA basketball operations staff, headed by league Vice President Stu Jackson, had the final call on the adjustment.
“We followed a procedure in which we review plays to make sure the stats are accurate to protect the integrity and history of the league,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said.
“the ruling was inconsistent with the stat crew’s tallies during the game. Wallace tipped a handful of rebounds to teammates, a tactic he’s perfected during his career and has been dubbed the “Ben back-tap” by Cavs play-by-play voice Fred McLeod. Most of the time at arenas around the league, Wallace gets credit for these as rebounds” Brian Windhorst, Cavs beat writer said.
“Yet the stats crew gave Wallace just one rebound in the game before NBA intervention while Wally Szczerbiak, who grabbed several of Wallace’s tap-backs, ended up with an anomaly of 13 rebounds, the second-highest total of his career. The review of the film by the NBA, though, did not change any other of Wallace’s uncredited back-taps or Szczerbiak’s rebounds.”