NEW YORK – The National Basketball Association announced today that Commissioner David Stern has denied the New York Knicks’ protest of the team’s 95-94 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 7.

In the protest, the Knicks argued that the referees incorrectly allowed the Thunder to inbound the ball in the front court after the team called a  timeout in the backcourt with 28.2 seconds remaining in the game, and that those final seconds of the game should therefore be replayed.  Commissioner Stern determined that the Thunder could have used their remaining timeout to advance the ball and that the Knicks had a fair chance to win on the game’s last possession, starting with 7.9 seconds remaining.  As a result, he concluded that the error claimed by the Knicks did not warrant overturning  the game’s result.