Not naming names, but my favorite team lost a (women’s) Final Four game a decade ago. This team had a player who almost never fouled. She was one of the stars, and she got a lot of playing time, but it was unusual for her to finish a game with even one foul called against her.
In that Final Four game, she fouled out. Without exaggeration, it was almost certainly the first time in her life that she’d fouled out. The network showed an instant replay of her last “foul,” clearly showing that no foul had occurred. The commentators’ dialog went like this:
“That doesn’t like like a foul.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Aw, you hate to see a call like that happen.”
“You’d hate to foul out on a call like that.”
“And in the Final Four, to boot.”
“Yeah, I hate stuff like that.”
The player in question knew exactly what had happened. She had class enough not to talk about it; but the next year, she didn’t even come out for the basketball team. She was also a star in another sport at the same school, and went on to win an NCAA championship with her team in that other sport, before she graduated.
I always wondered how much money the ref got for destroying that woman’s dream.
