Here you go Hou. I found some stuff about the head of refs at the time, Darell Garretson, saying that the Hollins call was a bad one. The actual story was in the Trib. I though I read it in the Sun-times, but it was 16 years ago, my memory is fading, I'm sorry.
But I found some old stuff in the Sun-Times talking about it with the quote. Here it is for your reading pleasure.
Chicago Sun-Times - Sunday, November 13, 1994
Author: John Jackson
FOUL MOOD: The Bulls haven't forgetten the foul call made by referee Hue Hollins in last season's Eastern Conference semifinals, and apparently neither has Hollins .
Before Saturday's game - the first Bulls game he has worked since the playoffs - Hollins had a security guard get Melissa Isaacson of the Chicago Tribune, who wrote a story with some critical comments of the call by Darell Garretson , the NBA director of officiating.
In case you forgot, Hollins made the foul call on Scottie Pippen with 2.1 seconds to go in Game 5 on a Hubert Davis jumper. Davis made both free throws, and the Bulls lost by a point.
After the game, Garretson defended the call, but was quoted in the Tribune story as saying: "All I could say, it was a terrible call. Any time an official does a game, he hopes he doesn't make any. . . . But those are the type we're paid not to miss. Those are an official's nightmare."
Apparently, Hollins still is haunted. He unleashed a brief, expletive-filled tirade against Isaacson before saying, "I don't have anything to say. . . . Get it right."
And less than two minutes into Saturday's game, Hollins called a techinical foul on Pippen for arguing a call.
Referees Don't Need Second-Guessers
Chicago Sun-Times - Sunday, December 4, 1994
Author: Lacy J. Banks
Until the NBA goes ultra-high-tech and comes up with an android that sees all, hears all, stores all and knows all, old-fashioned human referees will have to do.
And that's good. Like every wage-earner, I can feel a robot reporter on some engineer's drawing board looking over my paranoid shoulder. Too many laborers already have been phased out in favor of labor-saving machines.
Let's hope it doesn't happen to NBA referees. I admire these gypsy underdogs who never enjoy the luxury of a home game. As I went out into the cold night after a recent Orlando Magic-Milwaukee Bucks game, I passed referee Bennett Salvatore in the parking lot.
He just had endured another night of being victimized, criticized and brutalized. I felt sorry for him, but I'm sure he wasn't in the market for any pat on the back or word of support. So I silently passed.
Referees get used to abuse quickly and become immune to it. They toil for the pride and the money. Let's be honest: These guys are no gluttons for punishment, and there are many people who do far worse for much less.
This brings me around to referee Hue Hollins and his backstabbing boss, director of officials Darell Garretson . I know both men only professionally. We never have shared a soda or off-court small talk. We simply have seen each other at games.
On the whole, I'm always impressed by the jobs these men do under trying circumstances. Sure, they make mistakes. They are human. A sage Alexander Pope was right when he said, "To err is human, to forgive divine."
So referees will make mistakes, sometimes in crucial situations that will determine the outcome of a game. But
when we second-guessers check out videotaped replays, we often find they were right.
I was disappointed when Hollins called the controversial foul on Bulls star Scottie Pippen in last season's playoff series against the New York Knicks, a call that perhaps cost the Bulls another trip to the NBA Finals. Hubert Davis' last-second free throws rallied the Knicks to a victory in Game 5 and helped them capture the seven-game series 4-3.
But I was more disappointed months later when Garretson turned on Hollins in public by siding with critics of the call.
NBA rules limit what referees can say to the media in defense of themselves. They are forbidden from saying anything beyond explaining their judgment or the written rule. But I guess their bosses are free to hang them in verbal effigy.
What is professional refereeing coming to when officials can't defend and support each other? They already have more than enough enemies and critics. For them to start turning on each other makes the agony worse.
Garretson should have kept his mouth shut and left that issue alone. Would Garretson , a 27-year veteran who has made his share of mistakes, have done the same to his son, Ron, who is also an NBA referee?
I don't think so.
Here's hoping this never happens again.
Everybody is fallible. But nobody is falsely accused and abused more when he is right than the NBA referee.
Neither is anybody thanked less.
And less than two minutes into Saturday's game, Hollins called a techinical foul on Pippen for arguing a call.
