Jayson Castro’s buzzer-beating dagger doesn’t need an inquiry.
Philippine Basketball Association deputy commissioner Eric Castro on Monday told Daily Tribune that Castro’s dagger is perfectly legal as he released it before time expired, giving TNT Tropang Giga an 86-84 victory over San Miguel Beer in Game 1 of their Philippine Cup best-of-seven finals series late Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Castro, also the league’s technical director, said they already did a frame-by-frame review of all angles and they concluded that game officials were right in counting the game-winning basket from the top of the key.
“No need for an investigation,” Castro said a day after the Tropang Giga’s thrilling victory.
“The (technical) committee did a frame-by-frame slow motion review from different angles from our TV broadcaster. This is the only way to determine the situation. We will not just simply base it on still pictures that are circulating on social media.”
Social media exploded with reactions after Castro made the buzzer-beating trey off an inbound pass from veteran Ryan Reyes.
Photos circulating online show that Castro was still touching the ball with the game clock already lighting up signifying that time had already lapsed.
But Castro, a seasoned technical official, dismissed netizens’ claims, saying that the red lighting around the perimeter – not the game clock or the buzzer – should determine the correct game time.
“In addition, the PBA guidelines on the backboard is the red lighting around its perimeter,” he said.
“The red lighting takes precedence over the game clock signal. By practice, that is what we have been following. That is our guideline. That’s the sole purpose of the backlight.”
He asserted that TNT won the game fair and square with June Mar Fajardo even acknowledging the hard-earned victory and calling their fans to turn their focus on Game 2 on Wednesday.
“It took us three to five minutes to review the angles provided by TV5 so there was this angle given to us that even in the slightest gap, Jayson already released the ball before the backboard lit up,” Castro added.
