Black ballistic over non-call on Mercado; Cone says it’s nature of officiating

MANILA, Philippines — When Norman Black took the mic in Sunday night’s PBA Finals post-Game Five presser, he looked calm and collected.

But one look at his eyes and you’d know he’s curling in disgust over a call that never was.

The Meralco Bolts head coach cannot believe that Solomon Mercado didn’t commit a violation in the final moments of the game. Had the officials called for travel, a 3-pointer from Scottie Thompson wouldn’t have happened.

And the Bolts’ chances of digging themselves out of a hole would not have looked as bleak.

 “It was an obvious travel until the referee came to me and told me it wasn’t,” Black told the press. He took a long pause before adding matter-of-factly, “That’s exactly what he said to me, that it wasn’t a travel.”

In the final 60 seconds of the game. Mercado took a step too many on the way to the hoop. When he decided to pull the brakes on this drive, he skidded, turned around and saw Justin Brownlee for a pass. Before the Thompson’s basket, Meralco was just trailing by six.

Bang, as the shot went down. Bang, as Black “went ballistic.”

“And I just went ballistic because I don't understand how two people can see the same play and see it totally different,” Black said. “It appeared to be a travel to me, but you know, the referees are the police of the game, and they get the last say.

“[There’s] not too much I can do about it except to review it and make sure it was a travel, and if it was, to let the PBA Office know about it,” he added.

A quick Facebook search of “Mercado travelling” yields 49,071 in “people talking about this.” Discussion over the sequence isn’t as heated over at Twitter.

Tim Cone, for his part, didn’t dodge the question regarding the call.

“First of all, I didn't look at it. I'm not gonna spend my time looking at the replay while I'm in the huddle. I just told them, we don't have anything to apologize for,” he said.

“I've had so many bad calls, and the last two conferences we got knocked out on what we considered bad calls, so we have nothing to apologize for. This is part of the game, it happens,” Cone added.

“The team that's leading is always gonna be happy about the refereeing, and the team that's losing is always gonna be unhappy about the refereeing. That's the nature of refereeing,” the Kings coach said.

But with their backs against the wall, Meralco will sure come out swinging on Wednesday as they try to stay alive in the series. And the winningest coach said he’s bracing for that along with others.

“It's been a fairly good-refereed series. Not a lot of fouls called, we're both trying really hard not to foul and put teams on the line,” he said. “I’m sure I'm gonna be angry on Wednesday. It'll be my turn.”

“I intend to go watch it again to make sure that what I saw on the big screen was correct,” Black said.