BradyManny

The officiating continues to amaze me in how awful it is. I'm tired of hearing how hard basketball is to ref. It's not. It's ref'd perfectly fine in high school and in college - it's only the NBA.

I see a few options of what is wrong w the NBA officials:

a) They're just plain bad. Perfectly reasonable answer to what we've seen. They just don't know how to ref the game well. They are ego-maniacs who want to impose their will on the game.
b) They're biased towards certain teams/players/stars or have home-away biases. Again, reasonable enough.
c) They're downright corrupt, and, perhaps in conjuction with directives from the Commish, ref these games to create situations that help ensure the league 1) gets as long a series as the competition will allow 2) achieve the victor it would like.

I never would've said C a few years back, I considered myself too big a basketball fan. But the reffing has only gotten worse and worse. It's almost as if the Donaghy thing has made these refs even more stubborn, even more egotistical, biased, angry, bitter, manipulative and controlling figures.

The officiating has played a huge part in EVERY playoff game I've watched this year. And that's just wrong.

bigcountry75

I would take it further than just the NBA....I agree that the NBA is one of the easiest to fix and see the direct impact of the refs.....

In football you had Hochuli I believe that blew that call in the Denver/San Diego game and the refs just seem to feel like they have to throw a flag on almost every play......

In Baseball you had Joyce miss the Perfect game call, Joe West wants to be a diva on the cover of every magazine promoting his CD and talking about the games being too long.....

In Basketball the officiating has just been down right terrible....I wanted to think they were just plain bad but it seems like they are set on making the series go the way they want to....

After the Donaghy thing it just seems to obvious on how these series are being played out....It's not just getting one team in foul trouble but they focus on the superstars and it changes that teams whole gameplan.....If they come out calling everything on the Lakers in game 4 then we know it is totally fixed and I would love to call David Stern and ask what the outcome will be so I can bet on it.....

It is just sad for the athletes as they work too damn hard to not be given a fair shot at a ring that some may never have another shot at.....

BradyManny

It is sad that people can openly question these things nowadays and there is some validity to it.

I don't trust Stern at all anymore. To me, the Donaghy thing killed him. The notion that he was a rogue official when all evidence suggests others were involved is just sketchy. Take Scott Foster, Donaghy and he would talk 3 times a day anytime either was reffing, and Donaghy was using the phone he used primarily for betting purposes. And Stern says that they are just "close friends".

The credibility is gone. When your reputation and integrity is questioned - it usually illicit a response. IE, if the entire viewing base look at guys like Dick Bavetta, Joe Crawford, Salvatore, etc. and think "these guys want to be the stars, they want to impose their will on the game" - one would think that would push Stern to remove these guys. If your credibility is being killed b/c of these refs, why keep them? The answer is, you'd only keep them if they were doing the job the way you wanted them to.

Which tells me, Stern is OK with the superstar-biased, over-ref'd NBA we live in.

KontradictioN

Of course he is. Dollars are the bottom line to David Stern. A seven game series brings in the most revenue.

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ausbacker

National sporting bodies and organizations are businesses. Nothing more or nothing less. Everything revolves around money. Desirable outcomes are engineered to maximize revenue.

I'm not normally a person who questions referees on a regular basis as I accept they have incredibly difficult duties to perform. I take my hat off to them as they put themselves in the line of fire and deal with irate supporters all the time.

Watching the Celtics come back last night and watching the referees kill any momentum or chance of victory the Celtics had with phantom calls last night embedded in my mind that the Lakers winning game three was a desirable outcome for the NBA. Just you all watch the Celtics get phantom calls and go on to win four and five unless the Lakers do something special.

Sport like the world revolves around money. Money makes people fallible.

Boston Boxer

Stern has been crooked ever since he made sure Patrick Ewing was the NY pick...ever since then, i new the NBA was fixed

Disco Volante

If the NBA was fixed, how were the San Antonio Spurs able to become a dynasty?

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JMarr

[Not saying MLB is fixed] but same reason you don't see the Yankees/Red Sox vs. the Mets/Dodgers in the WS every year. If the system worked perfectly with totally predictable outcomes, no one would watch.

KontradictioN

Come on, JMarr. There's no master plan behind it. The better team still has to win (unless you're prepared to tell me that the Celtics weren't better in 2008). What the NBA wants is the longest series possible to maximize revenue dollars. It's the reason the calls seemingly go to one team on one given night (Celts in Game 2) and another team (Lakers in Game 3) on another given night. This isn't to say that it's impossible for the team who aren't getting all the calls to win, but it makes it extremely hard. Tim Donaghy has been on record of saying the same thing. Everytime the Celts would pull to within one or two the other night, there was some shady foul that was called (Gasol OBVIOUSLY flopping). I can guarantee you that this won't happen to the Celtics again tonight.

Obviously, it wasn't all the refs, though. The Celtics still had to do more to help themselves (like Paul Pierce and Ray Allen actually showing up to play, for instance).

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KontradictioN

Rivers comments...

Doc Rivers of Boston Celtics complains about refereeing, sends videotape to league office - ESPN

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