On the heels of Giannis Antetokounmpo's game-winning bucket, on which the Milwaukee Bucks star stepped on the baseline before finishing a dunk to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA's competition committee will add that type of play to the agenda for discussion at its meeting in March, league spokesman Tim Frank said Saturday.
Under the current replay rules, the play was not reviewable because it did not meet the criteria to trigger a review.
"In any reviewable matter, there has to be a whistle called on the floor," head official Derrick Stafford told a pool reporter after Friday's game, a 97-95 Bucks victory. "There was no whistle blown for the play, so we couldn't review it."
With 4.7 seconds left, OKC's Russell Westbrook had tied the game on a 3-pointer. The Bucks called timeout and set up a play for Antetokounmpo, who spun on Josh Huestis, stepped on the baseline and finished a dunk over Westbrook with 1.1 seconds to go.
Fans and Thunder players questioned why officials didn't review the play, especially after replays on the big screen clearly showed Antetokounmpo's foot touch the baseline. But to go to the replay monitor, the official would have needed to make a call on the floor signaling the Bucks star was out of bounds.
The competition committee will look at a number of solutions to such a situation, Frank said. If any change is made, it would not be implemented until the 2018-19 season. It is also possible no changes will be made.
On Saturday, the NBA acknowledged the missed call in its last two-minute report but did not address the replay situation.
