What a weekend of NBA basketball.

Never thought I’d say those words, particularly when I’m not being sarcastic, but it’s true. This weekend the NBA actually got me interested. For once, the first round of the NBA Playoffs appears to be a cakewalk for no one, meaning that relevant games are actually being played by teams like the Pacers and Grizzlies.

In the eight Game 1s played over the weekend, the average margin of victory was only 6.125 points, and the only two teams to win by more than eight points were underdogs. Seven of the eight underdogs led at some point in the fourth quarter, while the other (Philadelphia) was within one point in the final 2:30. In fact, if it wasn’t for Ray Allen’s clutch three-pointer or Carmelo Anthony’s fourth-quarter meltdown, we would already be looking at exactly one win from every seed in the first eight games.

For a neutral fan, these games have already had plenty of highlights. Allen’s aforementioned three, Nene’s “foreign facial” (Ian Eagle’s words, not mine), Chris Paul’s one-handed bullet pass and singlehanded destruction of the whole Laker defense, Shane Battier’s three to answer Matt Bonner, Dwight Howard laying down the most dominant performance of the playoffs in a loss, Derrick Rose willing his team to a last-second comeback . . . the list goes on and on.

For a fan of one of the losing sides, there are probably many other things going through your mind: the Pacers’ offensive strategy in the final minutes, Manu Ginobili’s injury, Anthony’s offensive foul (c’mon, it’s not like Paul Pierce has ever flopped), Amare Stoudemire’s lack of touches in the final two minutes, the complete disappearances of Pau Gasol and 60 percent of the Magic’s starting lineup, etc.

And if you’re a Nuggets fan, you might be thinking about a certain no-call on a tip-in by Kendrick Perkins that gave the Thunder a late lead that it held the rest of the way. I mean, it was only one of the clearest goaltends of all time that changed momentum in the final 70 seconds of a playoff game. Head coach George Karl was livid about the call after the game, which he felt led to his team’s loss.

But don’t worry, Nuggets fans, all is well. The NBA released a statement yesterday saying that the call was wrong.

Whew. That puts every complaint to rest. I mean, as long as the NBA knows that the call was wrong, it doesn’t matter who won the game. In fact, the NBA should start instructing its referees to make whatever calls they feel like. Then, after the game, the league can announce which calls were right and which were wrong, and everything will be settled. Problem solved.

Oh wait, there’s one more thing. Before admitting mistakes, the league has to make sure to go fine players and coaches who comment on the refereeing. Because let’s be honest, the players involved and the coaches a few feet away from the action have no idea what happened and therefore have no grounds to comment. Instead, the NBA should promote the idea that its referees make every call perfectly, so any complaints about officiating are slanderous and should result in fines. Except that calls that the NBA admits are wrong, of course.

Ta-da! Any questions?

Okay, I’ve got some myself. What good possibly comes out of admitting that the call was wrong? People must think it does something, because just about every league is doing it. Just Google “referees admit bad call” and see the quarter-million results. Did any of the losing teams get any peace of mind out of this? Are games called more fairly now? If the only incentive a referee has to get a call right is to avoid backlash, you’ve got some bigger issues with your referees.

If you want to find something positive about admitting incorrect calls, you could say that at least these leagues are coming to terms with the fact that their referees aren’t Turing machines that just spit out correct answers. Great. So why can’t anyone else admit that the referees make mistakes? Does it hurt the league’s reputation that much more when a player points out that it was a forward lateral compared to when a league representative does? When a coach is asked about a 19-2 deficit in free-throw attempts, what should he say? Within the first 10 results of the 7.6 million from Googling “fine comments referees,” you get Kobe, Shaq, NHL, English Premier League soccer, a Scottish soccer commentator and a high school basketball coach. So it’s a fairly popular practice.

But let’s give the NBA a break. After all, it’s not like an NBA referee would ever hurt the integrity of the game.

Jacob Jaffe is glad his editor didn’t remove the phrase in parentheses following “foreign facial.” Help compile a list of the thousands of alternative things Eagle could’ve said at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu.