Would 2,881 game seconds have saved the day?

MILWAUKEE – On New Year’s Eve, the Milwaukee Bucs lost narrowly to the Houston Rockets in Houston, 85-81. Today, the Bucs officially filed a protest with the NBA – not over an official’s call, but over timekeeping.

The game began at 7 p.m. EST, or midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). It just so happens that at that exact time, a so-called “leap second” was being added to atomic clocks to compensate for orbital drag, which scientists say slows the earth’s spin and eventually causes it to be out of synch with atomic clocks.

Without the occasional “leap second” to offset the discrepancy, eventually – that is, in about 1,000 years – the sun’s highest point in the sky – an honor reserved exclusively for the noon hour – would instead occur sacrilegiously at 1 p.m.

Although many timekeeping devices throughout the world, such as cell phones, computers and others, should have automatically inserted the extra second around 12 a.m. UTC, the Bucs say that wasn’t a factor in what happened Friday because the adjustment was made right before tip off and didn’t effect actual game time as recorded on the scoreboard.

“We’ve analyzed the game, and, sure enough, it only took 2,880 seconds (48 minutes) in scoreboard time,” said Scott Skiles, coach of the 15-18 Bucs.

“I’m not saying we would have won for sure with that extra second, but who knows? A guy could have heaved a three in that extra second and gotten fouled. Boom, four points.”

NBA officials have said games rarely start at precisely the scheduled time, in this case, 7 p.m. and zero seconds. “Given that, there would be no way for the leap second to have been inserted into play time,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Stern said the NBA will study the protest but added, “Even an atomic clock couldn’t measure how much time would have to pass before I agreed with their position.”

Originally posted 2009-01-02 08:27:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter