>>>>If the ref had made the right call would it still be cheating? All it comes down to is that he got away with a bad call by the ref. It happens in all sports.
>>>
>>>True. This was just (arguably) the biggest missed call ever.
>>
>>Last year when the Raptors were fighting it out in the playoffs, Ford took an inbounds pass at the basket for an alley-oop to win the game. The play was challenged, and it was asserted that Ford was a bjillionth of a second late putting it in the basket. The refs reviewed it and upheld the challenge costing the Raptors the playoff round. What they missed and never looked back on was the fact that the clock was started early (ie - before the inbounds pass was touched by anybody - Ford in this case). The replays showed clearly that the clock, in fact, did start early. The basket should have counted.
>>
>>That's life in the bigs.
>
>Surely that's "allez-oop" (from the French)?

Actually, I don't know. 'oop' is French? Thinking about it, it probably comes from the expression that kids use when one person boosts another person - you know when one person clasps his hands in front and the other person steps up and lunges higher. The yell was always (at the point of the lunge) "Alley-oop". Now where that came from I have no idea, but I'd bet anything that the basketball phrase came from that.

Thinking more about it, maybe it's actually a corruption of a combination of French and English - 'Allez up' = 'Go up'.