[alnorth]

I don't think it is a late flag. Its a case of negative reinforcement where we never pay attention to how long after the foul a flag was thrown, and only pay attention, aside from ludicrously late flags, when a great play is called back in a close game on a hard-to-see foul and people wonder about vegas, then think "huh, took him a while to throw it". I bet if you sat with a stopwatch and just observed ref flag-throwing times all day you wouldn't see a difference. All good refs/umpires/officials should take a second to process it and think "am I sure" before reacting. He was reaching for his flag at a reasonable time.