Honestly, i could care less about that Flagrant 2 called on Artest. Game was already decided. Artest won't get suspended for next game, though it was a bad call. What concerns me more is Yao's status. I blame RA for this. Yao shows fatigue and pain in the 3rd, but RA kept Yao on the court, which may exagerate the situation on Yao's ankle. And i don't understand when we stuck on the offensive end in the 3rd, why he didn't make any adjustment. he could've sent out energetic bench to fight. we were already trailing 10 in the early of 3rd. sigh, what a painful game to watch.
The game wasn't lost due to that call. It was a bad call, but it didn't change the outcome of the game. And I highly doubt that Ron will get suspended. The refs are told to control the game and they did just that. Just chill.
Stern's bosses are the team owners. But they'll never fire him, Stern is a mandarin... a bureaucrat who specializes in managing the egos of those higher than he is. Why would powerful owners in the league like Jerry Buss oust Stern when every year he looks out for their interests, feeds them players like Gasol for free, makes their best players untouchable in the league and does his best to usher them into the Finals every year? Another avenue is Congress looking in to racketeering but Stern is well insulated by his people and Congress rather talk about the BCS, Michael Vick, steroids anything other than the biggest elephant in the room that is NBA officiating. Stern's really done little to help the league and a lot to hamper the growth of the league in recent years. His league has been declining in popularity and reputation for years. He's fumbled digital media, growth overseas, and his handling of his actual duties in administering the league has led to widespread criticism and even boycott over corruption. While the NFL has exploded in popularity and MLB has launched the successful MLB channel and WBC has been MASSIVE overseas Stern's one go-to strategy hasn't changed since the 1980s... take a REALLY long-ass playoffs and stretch them even further with officiating to wring every last cent out of them. If he had any integrity he'd step down especially after 25 years but he's made hundreds of million in salary off the league and that's the last thing on his mind
