Otto Porter missed the final possession of Thursday night’s game between the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers because, according to his coach, he was in the middle of taking a drug test.
No, an overenthusiastic technician with a sample cup did not run out on the floor.
The game had a bizarre, delayed, twice-played final possession after both teams thought the game was over and then, minutes later, the officials realized a clock error had occurred and there should have been 0.5 seconds left on the clock.
The refs put that half second back on the clock, and with the Bulls holding a 108-107 lead and the ball belonging to the Sixers, went and got both teams out of their respective locker rooms and made them come back to the floor.
Bulls coach Jim Boylen wanted to go with Otto Porter for the defensive possession, but he said he couldn’t, because Porter was busy taking a drug test for the league.
Luckily for the Bulls, Porter, the city of Chicago, and I guess the person who had to administer the drug test, Philadelphia wasn’t able to convert on the final play and Chicago held on to the 108-107 win.
Here’s how the weirdness went down with the repeated play: After Zach LaVine made a big driving bucket to give the Bulls the lead, the Sixers had one more chance to inbounds the ball.
They tossed in a ball to the post with 0.5 seconds remaining, and as you can clearly see in the video, the timekeeper started the clock well before the ball touched anyone’s hands off the inbound pass.
The refs reviewed it and got it right … eventually. Not before poor Otto Porter was busy with other stuff.
