LeBron James triple-double of Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden is no more. The NBA determined Friday morning that one of his rebounds actually should have been credited to Ben Wallace, and the mistake was corrected.This is one of those stories that makes me cringe. Does it really matter? Can't LeBron just have the rebound?
Listen, I'm all for accuracy in recording of statistics. Stats are extraordinarily important in sports these days. They help determine a player's value for his next contract, they help millions of fantasy geeks live (a.k.a. Scott) and they are fascinating for sports fans to analyze.
But does this one rebound really matter?
The NBA, upon further review noticed that the rebound in question, credited to James with 39.3 seconds left, actually fell into the hand of Wallace who quickly fed it to James as he led the break. It is the correct call, no question. Having seen the highlight on PTI today, it's obvious the statistic was incorrect.
Why did the NBA get it wrong to begin with? It seemed like a pretty obvious rebound to me.
I know the league is really worried about its image and credibility after the whole Tim Donaghy debacle. But this seems like a plea to reassure its fans that they care about getting things right now more than they care about what is good for the game.
It's like when Major League Baseball credited Hack Wilson with his single season record 191st RBI sixty-nine years after the record was thought to be 190 RBI in 1930.
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