Just listened to the Big O speak out the truth about the condition of the NBA officiating. He said the referees officiate personalities instead of the plays. He said everytime Shaq gets the ball he lowers his shoulder into the defender, pushes off, and that is an offensive foul. Finally, somebody willing to tell the truth about the status of the game on the floor.
I get so tired of that crap about it is so hard to officiate Shaq. When he lowers that shoulder and plows into the other players thats a foul, Ben Wallace has been taken a beating down low this series. The last game Shaq elbowed Ben in the face drew blood and got called for the foul. Ben looked at the offical and shook his head in disbelief.
So do you think that, since a foul is a foul, whenever a defender puts two hands or two forearms on Shaq's back, a foul should be called? Shaq gets hacked on every possession, and most of the time he doesn't get the call unless he's in the act of shooting.
I'm pretty sick of it too. Shaq shouldn't be penalized for making the same moves every center in the league does, just because he's bigger than everyone else. Defenders guarding Tim Duncan when he goes into a rolling or jump have to put both arms in the air and move their feet. With Shaq, they put two arms and a hip into him when he moves. IT IS REALLY HARD TO REFEREE AN NBA GAME! GET OVER IT!
If they called it on every center in the league, the centers would change how they play. What kind of centers could dominate would also change. If they don't want them to change, then they should change the rules. They could make it legal to push off the defender with the body. They could make it legal to use two hands and the hip to defend in the low block. Whether you agree or not with Oscar's take on Shaq's offensive moves, his basic point is right. Rules shouldn't be interpreted differently on different players. If they think some rules aren't practical with NBA players, then change them. But I think Will made a good point in another thread. The reason they call it differently on different players is because some players make illegal moves so pretty, the refs simply want to watch rather than blow the whistle.
Everybody gets hacked, not just Shaq. And the ref doesn't always make the call. A foul is a foul no matter who is committing it.
If the rules were the same for each player, then Dwyane Wade would average 60 points a game simply by posting up every time down court. Thinking on the fly has allowed the game to keep the league leaders around 30 a game for 45 years, with the only changes coming only in the accessiblility of the forums (AM radio, message boards) in which people are allowed to publicly snipe about judgement calls.
Yes, the 2 hands or forearms on Shaq should be called a foul. The officials should officiate by the rule book. They should call the handchecks. And they should call the shoulder into the defender along with the elbow hooks to the kidneys. The reason the refs let so much contact go against SHaq is because he initiates so much contact himself. If they called the contact that he initiates that is an offensive foul, he would foul out in the first half. What needs to happen is the refs need to tell Shaq that they are going to call those offensive fouls. He can no longer plow into the defender with reckless abandon. And they should tell the rest of the league, they are going to call the handchecks, hacks, and slaps that Shaq receives. I have watched this Miami Detroit series and I'm naucious at seeing how the refs are calling it. They go to Detroit and they actually call it pretty fair but all we heard about was how they called fouls on Shaq and Miami in the paint. Miami says they are going to get real aggressive in the paint, they are not going to let whistles stop them the next game. And the officials come out and hand them that game in Miami. They were calling the most stupid fouls on Detroit including like 3 offensive fouls in a row on Rasheed, which were a total joke. They run Rasheed off the floor with that garbage and hand Miami the game on a silver platter. Detroit didn't change the way the played 4 games into the series. The refs changed the way they called it. It's ridiculous.
It's enough to make a man ''naucious,'' apparently. Not me. I equate the ref-bashers with the ones who are trying to stuff a hoagie down Danica Patrick's mouth. I'm sick of penalzing Shaq for being bigger and faster than most every center who has ever played, or for complaining that Oakley and Pippen were quicker and smarter than just about every who played forward during the 90s. Might as well waste your time whining about the fact that Britney sells a billion albums and (crappy, sensitive singer/songwriter) doesn't. I'm gunna watch and enjoy Game 7. Try to do the same, if Mum allows.
Hell . . Rip Hamilton gets Continuation on every foul . . . he just takes to more steps and dribble and shoot Every Player has SOMETHING they get away with Like the man says . .. it is personalities For some .. it is palming for others it is steps for others still it is fouls Touch fouls in this series seem to goto the away team Some of the fould on Shaq in Detroit were ludicris vice versa on Sheed in Miami Most fouls on Shaq happen before he even receives the ball but lord knows no one want to see Shaq at the line 30~40 times a game Rocket River
The opponents do. If you want to stop the intentional hacks on Shaq, there should be a rule that says that once a player gets 10 fouls on him, every foul theerafter he is awarded an extra foul shot. That would cut down on the intentional hacks. I just want to see the game called right. When kids are playing in high school, they are taught a certain, fundamental way of playing defense and offense. When you watch the NBA, the way the game is officiated causes a lot of these kids to go away from fundamentally good basketball. Free throws aren't important. Defensive positioning isn't important. Rather, playing psychological games with the officials and learning how to influence the officials throughout the game, and after the game through the media, becomes important. Taking 3 steps to throw down some monster dunk becomes important. Players like Yao come into the league from international play with a good, fundamental understanding of the game, and for them to be successful in the NBA, they have to be turned into some kind of monster that runs over people. If a foul is a foul, call it. If a player travels, call it. If a player palms the ball, call it. If he takes two dribbles after he is fouled and takes 3 steps and makes a shot, don't allow it. If Shaq or anybody else plows into their defender, call it. If a defender hacks, slaps, and holds, call it. Clean up the game and make it about basketball being played the right way so that the best team wins and the true players are given their due credit. It will still be entertaining. It will be even more entertaining than it is now because we won't be having to discuss how horrible the officiating is and watch the vascillating from the officials from game to game on how they call the game and we can concentrate on the play of the teams instead of how the fouls are going to be called from night to night. The officiating should be consistent from quarter to quarter, from player to player, from team to team, and from game to game. Any changes in officiating should be handled in the offseason and every team should be notified of the changes. There should not be changes midseason or during the playoffs between games on how the game is called. The officiating should be accurate and fair without partiality or grudge to any player, coach, or team.
It's not that it's too simplistic; it's that it would make games 6 hours long! Honestly jopatmc, do you actually ENJOY watching games where there's a foul called every five seconds? Do you find that entertaining? I don't. It's not just a matter of "well, if they call every foul players won't foul as often". The game moves way, way too fast for that. Even on a high school level. I'd rather see the refs let players get away with contact than see teams shoot 50 FTs a game. But that's just me. Let the players play.
I'd rather they do call every foul. Yes, eventually teams will learn not to use the same blatant moves that they get away that others don't. You'd probably be more likely to run into the 80s Golden era of basketball where heavy contact wasn't as prevailent. You'd also be far more likely to see more high scoring games than you used to.
No, what you'd probably see is two teams either taking a combined 110 FTs a game, or shooting layup lines for 48 minutes. Am I the only person that sort of likes the game as it is?
I disagree. Players, by default, would have to stop fouling as much. Scoring would, after acclimation, increase a lot. However it works, I just want them to call by the book. If they don't want to call that way, change the rule book...that's fine, too. NBA refereeing is not that hard. There is a rule book that governs the game. Call by those rules. Why there is different refereeing for different refs and different players and different teams and different styles of plays on different days of the week on different television channels (national games vs. regional) on different coaches at different venues is beyond me. There's only one set of rules, right?
One of my favorite NBA fantsies is to get three top-flight high school officals and have them call the game.
The 80s and the decades before it had the playing style of less contact and stricter palming, travelling, and offensive fouls called. It wasn't a problem then. It shouldn't be a problem now. You'll sooner find guys in the league that are tremendous athletes but are subpar basketball players like Darius Miles out of the league, or more searches for possibly less athletic but more basketball gifted players in the league. I blame the refs and Stern for letting calls get so out of hand. There was favoritism for certain players before the 90s and up to the current state of the game, but there were less blatantly obvious offensive and defensive called. You'd more often find the benefit of the doubt calls than the blatant fouls that refs let certain players get away with.
Yep. The players would adjust and quit all the hacking. No player wants to foul out in 10 minutes of play. They know they won't have a J-O-B if they keep doing that. The whole idea of the game slowing down and being longer is ludicrous. The games would actually become shorter because the players would get in a flow and keep playing. The fouling would be reserved for the final minutes of quarters and the end of the game. Bring back Magic and Bird and the 80's. Those teams still played great defense.
I read somewhere that back in the old CBA days the NBA would use the CBA to season it's officials, and that they were trained to give home court teams or teams with former NBA players as coaches the benifit of a doubt. Other teams coaches would complain to the director of officials because winning on the road especially against former NBA player coached teams was close to impossible. The director never did anything though because the referees were doing exactly what they were supposed to do. I still don't believe that refs decide games because Stern tells them to though, some of them just suck and teams allow their suckage to affect their play, so they lose.
