(And the winner for "most awkward, premature celebration of the season" goes to....)

On Tuesday night, Brad Miller got off a shot with only 0.3 seconds remaining in a game and got nothing but net, giving the officials the workout of a lifetime. The first several replays were inconclusive, but the final angle -- the overhead shot -- showed that the ball was still on his fingertips when the clock went to zero. No basket. The Nuggets won, the Bulls lost.

Miller came very close to making NBA history. Since the NBA enacted the Trent Tucker Rule -- which was created after Trent Tucker hit a game-winning shot with only a tenth of a second on the clock -- no player has ever hit a game-winning jump-shot with less than three tenths of a second to go. Two years ago, David Lee tapped in a game-winning lob with only 0.1 on the clock.

If not for instant replay, Miller's shot probably would have stood and the Bulls would have walked away with a wrongful victory. Teams no longer have to worry about erroeneously receiving a win or a loss, a luxury that baseball teams do not possess. Never again will the league officials have to live with the embarrasment that they suffered on January 15, 2001, the kind of embarrasment that baseball umpires endure every single week.

It was on January 15, 2001, that the Los Angeles Lakers played at home against the Vancouver Grizzlies. Los Angeles should have obliterated them, but the Lakers were never known for getting off to great starts. The game miraculously went to overtime and the Grizzlies were on the brink of victory. With only a few seconds remaining in overtime, the Grizz held a 112-111 lead over the defending champions.

On the Lakers' final possession, the ball was thrown in to Robert Horry, who launched a 20-footer to hopefully win the game. His shot was off, but was rebounded by Shaquille O'Neal, who put the ball up as a Vancouver defender contested the layup. O'Neal's follow-up banker was in and the Lakers were awarded the win. Television replays showed that O'Neal got his shot off long after the buzzer sounded, meaning that the Grizzlies should have been declared the winner. However, with instant replay still years from introduction, there was no way to challenge it.

The offcials ruled that because Grizzlies center Isaac Austin had fouled O'Neal on the play, O'Neal's shot counted as continuation -- even though there was no time on the clock when he released the ball. The Grizzlies were furious and had every right to be. Not only was Austin's contact questionable at best, continuation was hardly an appropriate cover considering a foul was not called on the play. Had there been continuation, O'Neal should have received a free-throw with time still on the clock, which he did not.

Grizzlies forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim, in one of the most honest (and fine-worthy) reactions in history, told this to the Associated Press: "I don't care. We fought too hard and played too hard to be put in a situation like that. They can fine me for that. That's a blown call by three cowards. ... If referees get fined, all three of them should get fined triple whatever they are fined. I can't say anything else but gutless and coward."

"It's a sad thing for it to come down to something like that," said Austin. "They made the wrong call and we just have to live with it."

Sadly, the most inept franchise in NBA history was robbed of a victory against one of the premier teams in history. Had this scenario played out in 2009, the Grizzlies would have come away with the win. That's why there needs to be instant replay in baseball -- at least on the final plays of the game. No one wants to see a game end that way -- where the winning team should be the loser, and the loser should be the winner. And yet it happens all time. Thankfully that isn't the case in the NBA, at least not anymore.