Remember when Stockton pulled Cassel down in the playoffs for a similar call? Cassel used it a few times later, good smart players get beat once on cheap stuff like that. DD
1. It was a bull**** call. And no, Yao shouldn't have fouled out the play before. Because that, in turn, was a make-up call for a bull**** foul on him hte play before. 2. Cheating is lame. It's not "savvy." It undermines the integrity of basketball, and makes manipulating the refs more important than playing basketball. We need a "diving" penalty. 3. Sorry, the idea that "the refs can't lose a game for you" is just not correct. A decent playoff team is going to outscore opponents by an average of a couple of points per game. Significant # of mistakes by refs really will change a great # of games for your average team (though fewer for extremely good teams, or extremely poor teams). Generally, it'll average out. But when teams like the Lakers g et so many calls... it really does call into question the integrity of the league. A lot of people point to the Sacramento-LA series as proof of the league being rigged. That was bad, but the LA-Indiana game 6 a few years ago was even worse. You coudln't block a Laker player. It was a foul if you did. Replays showed, quite clearly, that the Pacers got all-ball on Bryant with NO lower body contact on a couple of plays w/in a span of a minute or so. Of course, the fouls were called.
