The Phantom Buzzer Game is the unofficial name of a
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
game between the
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...
and
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...
on November 6, 1969 at
Chicago Stadium
Chicago Stadium was an indoor arena in Chicago, Illinois, that opened in 1929, closed in 1994 and was demolished in 1995. It was the home of the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks and the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls.
...
. The game was famous for referee
Bob Rakel disallowing a game-tying basket because he claimed the buzzer sounded, even though there was one second left on the clock, and also for being the first incident where an official protest was upheld by the NBA.
The incident and protest
Late in the game with time winding down and Atlanta leading 124–122, the Bulls heaved a desperation shot that bounced off the rim, but Bulls center
Tom Boerwinkle
Thomas F. Boerwinkle (August 23, 1945 – March 26, 2013) was an American National Basketball Association (NBA) center who spent his entire career with the Chicago Bulls.
Early life
Tom Boerwinkle was born in Independence, Ohio, one of three ch ...
tipped it in to tie the game at 124 with one second left.
However, Rakel waved off Boerwinkle's basket because he claimed he heard the final buzzer go off before it went in.
Bulls coach
Dick Motta
John Richard Motta (born September 3, 1931) is an American former basketball coach whose career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) spanned 25 years. Motta coached the Washington Bullets to the 1978 NBA Championship, and he won the 1971 ...
and GM
Pat Williams immediately got in Rakel's face. Despite both of them pointing right to the clock on the scoreboard, which showed one second left, and timekeeper
Jim Serry flat-out telling Rakel he did not touch the clock or buzzer, and further proving this by flipping the switch to run the clock to zero and allowing the buzzer to sound while the press corps watched him do it, Rakel and partner
Jack Madden
Jack Madden is an American retired professional basketball referee. He was born in Trenton, NJ.Pluto, Terry, 'Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association', New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990, , pp. 132–133
Madden ...
, who deferred to him despite later admitting he also did not hear the buzzer sound, refused to budge from his ruling and walked off the court declaring the game over and Atlanta the winners.
Afterwards, Williams immediately filed an official protest with the NBA. After sorting through the evidence, commissioner
Walter Kennedy upheld the protest. It was the first official protest to be upheld by the NBA, and the only one until 1982.
Playing it out
The game was ordered to be continued before the Hawks and Bulls' next scheduled game in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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with one second left, the game tied, and Atlanta in possession.
Unfortunately, when the suspended contest resumed, the clock ran to zero without the buzzer sounding, because the timekeeper had forgotten to set it. Despite Motta's embarrassment and Hawks coach
Richie Guerin
Richard Vincent Guerin (born May 29, 1932) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played with the National Basketball Association's (NBA) New York Knicks from 1956 to 1963 and was a player-coach of the St. Louis/Atlan ...
's mock protests, the officials working that game declared the second had expired and started the overtime period. The Bulls eventually lost the suspended game 142–137.
References
*''The Basketball Hall of Shame'' by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo pp. 95-96
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phantom Buzzer Game
Chicago Bulls games
Atlanta Hawks games
1969–70 NBA season
National Basketball Association controversies
National Basketball Association games
1969 in sports in Illinois
November 1969 sports events in the United States
1960s in Chicago
Nicknamed sporting events