You'd think they'd at least lay low or something while stuff like this is coming out, but then, Game 2. Jesus.
Abramoff's fault. Bush's fault. The owners' fault. The corruption of America's fault. Society is to blame. We're all to blame. Who among us has not contributed to this mess? I say it's time to move on and put it behind us. Think about the future, and not the past. Think about what we can do, and not about what we might or might not have done or not. We're doers, not critics and complainers. The American spirit!
Well, not broad enough of a fan to say much except I believe that both Cuban and Nowitzki learned against Miami that Stern will never let Cuban win a championship. Wade, Game 3. Now that isn't all of the reasons they have lost in the first round two successive years, but it would affect motivation.
Stern will do what he thinks is best for the league. Who has bitched more about the refs over the last few years, Boston or LA? The troublemaker will lose. Or maybe it's Kobe. But Stern is God.
Re:"didn't foul out". Most players with 4 or 5 are nearly useless on defense.
Stern:I'm warning you, Mark
Cuban:Watcha gonna do, fine me a million? I'll pay a million, I make it in a week.
Stern:You'll find out what I can do.
And as a lesson to other owners, Cuban could get the All Stars, but he will never get a ring.
Matt Capps just wrecked my fantasy baseball team's line for the night. I blame JRoth.
What is sickening is that the reffing seems so whimsical that no one can have the slightest sense of whether he's telling the truth. It really is like the Bush Administration: it's hard if not impossible to disentangle incompetence from corruption.
And, of course, more evidence that sports reporters aren't very good reporters, even under current diminished standards.
Notable Bass Anglers? Nasty Butterfly Annihilators? Northern Buttfucking Alliance?
As I've noted several times, something odd happens when you leave the rules the same as ever but stop enforcing some of them most of the time.
Do I get a Nobel Prize for that one? Do I have to dress it up with some equations first?
Nine Banded Armadillo. Texans have to watch out for the NBA, lest they track leprosy into the house.
Do I have to dress it up with some equations first?
John Emerson: a rogue economist who explores the hidden side of everything.
1: let alone the first half of Game 3!
i don't think it's corruption just excessive discretion 10 gets it right emerson maybe there were a few isolated cases of corruption but the much bigger problem is complete lack of objective standards in practice this responds to 1 and 13 how can you even judge something like this if the rules were enforced strictly no one would want to watch.
14: I'd be a lot happier, actually. Not even strictly enforced, just consistently enforced, with less absurd discretion given to refs. Homefield advantage should not be good for 20 points and 10 free throws a game.
well then blame the motherfucking showtime lakers sifu it's their fault as much as anyone else and michael jordan too not personally of course but revenues generated for the league I think you just need to realize that sticklers like you aren't the target audience it's really just a watered down version of the WWF but most people don't care they just want to see a motherfucking show.
look don't get me wrong it makes me sick it makes me vomit.
Sub-anonymous, please pick a fake name and use it.
Also I rather like the style but I'm sure the swells around here would delight in a punctuation mark or two, distributed judiciously.
Nah, never mind. 16 is awesome. You be you, everyone and noöne.
I thought 14 was read, and was going to advise her to return to the "one thought per line" posting style.
but no, 16 appears to be someone else.
Okay, that offensive foul was some Italy in the world cup bullshit, is what that was.
didn't mean to be anonymous five fucking fouls for pierce this is a joke
Nice. I knew I liked 16. Brock yeah it's absurd. But of course I could totally see the point that Game 2 was absurd in the other direction; what's the point if the refs just do their best to throw it to the home team?
Listen to Btock Lamerf, NBA. Listen.
I knew there was a reason I found it impossible to care who won an NBA game, either before, during, or after the game.
I am inclined to be skeptical about things like the specific allegations in the article, although I must say that the officiating in the 2002 Lakers-Kings series has been a particular hobbyhorse of mine. So I don't really know what to think. The seeming homerism and general favored superstar protectionism just puts them in such a compromised position that the league has no real position to stand on against allegations like this.
16 Gets it right on Jordan, I think that is when it really went over the top. Ask Craig Ehlo about when he was at Cleveland trying to guard Jordan. One game there was a 50-50 collision, Jordan goes down hurt (temporarily) and Ehlo gets a technical.
And I guess you could argue that it started with the allowances for Dr J (and then Lakers etc.) in the late 70s.
Maybe if the lakers drove to the hoop, instead of taking mid-range Js, they'd get to the line.
Game 6 if necessary, bitches.
28: baa man I think the C's are the better team. I really am starting to think this is the case.
Bill Simmons, though he's insufferable when Boston teams are winning, has an uncanny ability to correctly pick which refs will be assigned to particular playoff games. He predicted Bennett Salvatore tonight, and, whaddaya know, guess who was in the crew. When a sportswriter can figure out the ref rotation on the basis of the way a series is going, there are some pretty deep issues.
1 Game two had some of the best officiating I've ever seen.
28 I don't know, they're more even than I'd thought a week ago. Now if only we could convince Doc to handcuff Sam Cassell to the bench we'd be in better shape. But we are sort of missing a competent point guard.
He also disclosed that the league has already briefed members of the U.S. Congress
For fuck's sake, don't these people have real work to do? Even though it's nothing new, it still stuns me that Congress gets involved in sports. For all the money, it's still just a bunch of people playing games.
Yes, yes I do hate America.
Game two had some of the best officiating I've ever seen.
I am not so easily trolled.
For fuck's sake, don't these people have real work to do? Even though it's nothing new, it still stuns me that Congress gets involved in sports.
Word. Is it too much to ask that Arlen Specter kill himself?
34: Is it too much to ask that Arlen Specter kill himself?
I think he is aware of how badly he has come off in his various little "stand up against the truly crazy Repubs until it actually matters" kabukis that he now deliberately seeks out issues of no substance to occupy his time.
I may have been the only person with this rationale, but I voted for the Green guy instead of the Democrat against Specter because I thought that if Specter was removed, the Republicans would give his leadership roles to someone who was a total rubber stamp, so we were better off with him and his seniority.
Oh, how naive I was, um, three years ago.
That's okay, N__. You were young, and not reading a political blog for several hours a day.
Yes, yes, people like Scot Pollard in the so-called "reality-based community" are going to gripe, but they are just a bunch of biased losers.
And even if the aren't biased, they're still losers.
ha, my style was analyzed here, i like this thread
the one line-one thought strategy, it's b/c i don't use dots
besides, going anon in the basketball thread and very passionately, that's funny, but so unlike me
39: besides, going anon in the basketball thread and very passionately, that's funny, but so unlike me
Read is proud to take credit for her fair, balanced and cerebral commentary on the NBA playoffs.
i should have said like me?!
i don't see how then i would have conveyed a message that Brock Landers was not me
and i wouldn't have commented on NBA at all
coz have no opinion at all on the matter and can't tell who is who, Kobe Bryant or Shaquill O'Neil
hopefully their names are correct
can't tell who is who, Kobe Bryant or Shaquill O'Neil
Kobe is 6'6" and about 200 pounds. Shaq is 7'1" and weighs 325. If that helps.
Yeah, but they all look alike to read.
Too obvious?
I blame JRoth.
Hey, I already suffered enough for that game. The rest of the evening, I kept thinking, "That can't really have happened."
The television money distorts everything. Game seven, here we come. Notice how when the finals are not between major markets, things like officiating seem fairer.
Why not use robots, or the Mac cam like in tennis?
Why not use robots, or the Mac cam like in tennis?
What?! What the fuck!? Are you fucking blind?!