I have no idea why this is, but the Dallas Mavericks can’t seem to stay away from wrong-basket debacles in the NBA.
We remember the fiasco with the Golden State Warriors this season that ended up in Mark Cuban actually protesting a loss because of a free basket the Warriors got behind an officiating mistake.
Now, the Mavs are finally on the right end of one of those mistakes. Summer Leaguer Marcus Bingham Jr. was the only person who realized it, though.
After a dead ball, the Mavericks were awarded the ball by the officials and just continued to play regularly. That is, until Marcus Bingham Jr. did the unthinkable.
He took the ball the other way and dunked it. It was HILARIOUS.
🛑 Mavericks are going the wrong way!
Jared Dudley: “What are you doing?”#NBASummerLeague pic.twitter.com/5c8skijDE4
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) July 15, 2023
Jared Dudley (who is apparently coaching now!) was absolutely stunned. Mans said “what are you doing?” And, yeah, that’s the question we all had.
But if you were actually paying attention — which no one but Bingham appeared to me — you’d know that Bingham was right.
Excuse me??? How was this right?
Well, because, y’all. Marcus Bingham Jr. didn’t actually dunk on the wrong basket. That was actually the Mavericks’ basket that he scored on.
After a foul on the Mavericks that caused a dead ball, the officials incorrectly gave Dallas the ball and pointed to the Pacers’ basket as the basket that the Mavericks were supposed to be scoring on.
There’s more to this story: On the possession before the Mavs’ backcourt violation, O-Max was called for a foul.
then the Mavs subbed in five new guys
and the officials wrongly allowed the Mavs to inbound.
Bizarre pic.twitter.com/mO5dRIb38D
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) July 15, 2023
Bingham was right, y’all!
WAIT. Wow. It's Summer League for the officials to, huh?
Yup. Absolutely. It’s hilarious, though, because everyone made fun of Bingham for seemingly doing the wrong thing here. But he was actually totally right.
He let everyone know it on Twitter, too.
I wasn’t wrong 😂😂😂 media a do anything https://t.co/IHWrTdDT9D
— Marcus Bingham Jr (@marcusbingham0) July 15, 2023
Got to respect it, honestly.
So did the basket count?
Nope. The officials didn’t count it. Honestly, that’s kind of messed up considering that it was off of a mistake they made. But you can totally understand why with all of the confusion going on.
The bucket had some high stakes, too. The Mavericks needed to win by 27 points to make the NBA Summer League playoffs. Obviously, it doesn’t really matter. But still! They needed that bucket.
The Mavericks got their win, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. Whatever, though.
All I know is that Bingham better had earned himself a spot on the Mavericks’ roster with that heads-up play. He deserves it.
