The League Mandate Against Yao: A Logical Explanation Needed

- league wants to promote small ball b/c fans resent the 1 or 2 teams lucky enough to get a star center

- league wants Yao to play like crap in Houston so that he will leave as a free agent and sign with a big market team

- the league is racist

- Washington has told Beijing that if they don't stop pegging the Renmibi to the Dollar that Yao will never see the second round

- Stern is an idiot

- Les doesn't donate enough to the refs' annual "Wettin our Whistles" night

- refs have old and arthritic necks that prevent them from being able to look up and properly officiate players higher than 7'1"

- Stern is on the board of the Bronx Zoo and is strongarming the Chinese for a panda

 

Yao and TMac have much, much more name recognition and exposure and marketability than Nowitski and anyone on the Mavs. Can Nowitzki claim 300 million fans? No. Yao can, though.

Business sense says that, since Stern and the NBA are obviously more interested in marketing individuals than teams, the Yao/Tmac duo provides much more potential. The Rockets' starts provide more compelling and intriguing storylines than do the Mavs. More people interested = more money.

Upshot: Rockets advancing and Yao/TMac doing well and providing drama are good things for the NBA.

 

dude, my spidey sense tells me that you are a little paranoid !

 

Because of those types of fouls Yao is going to be worried about trying to get position and it effects him all during the game....that one call really effects a player that is supposed to be tough in the paint....but isn't even allowed to get position...

 

Maybe the league is tying to avoid the mistakes made by refs calling Shaq's games years ago. It seemed at that time that Shaq was always gettting away with lowering the shoulder and bulldozing defenders. That used to drive me bonkers. To me it was an obvious foul but the refs would not call it.

 

League has always done this, and it does not neccessarily have anything to do with marketing or helping certain teams along.

About 7 or 8 years ago, there was a mandate to crack down on Malone and the half-hour he spent before shooting a free throw. You also had the back-down rule on Barkley and Mark Jackson. Iverson (and others) got targeted for palming. Even Dream got targeted in the mid-90s for (possible) traveling. Why there wasn't a crack down on Ewing and his hop-scotch across the lane baffles me.

Moving screens have become popular around the league this year. Maybe it was tied to the new no-perimeter contact rule. I don't really know. I do know that the Mavs sent in tapes of, IIRC, 27 instances where they felt Yao set an illegal screen, and the league agreed with a third of them. Hence, memo.

No bias, no conspiracy. Same as they would if they knew two teams or players have bad blood (Shaq vs. Kobe, for example).

Evan

 

Seriously though, doesn't make sense for Stern to fck with the Rockets, my guess is just the racist refs resent Yao for some reason and have been screwing with him all season long.

 

I can't explain it. All I know is that when Yao was posting up Flopitzki, the Flopper threw his head back three times in a row, and the refs called the third one. When he pumped his fist like he had just won the title, I wanted to punch him in the nuts.

 

A foul is a foul, Yao should have kick him in the nuts accidentally.

 

what league think is that Yao and Tracy are still young. So they have to wait for their turn. While the maverick guys are older and NBA want to give them a last shot and make out of them the every last drops of profit which they can still produce. we are still just a underdog.

I think next year nba will definetely promote this duo hard and become a favorite.

 

Yao has been held down by the Association,so that the NBA can get 7 out of this series.The Mavs are an overrated prop/marrionette.It should have been a sweep or 5 games.

 

When I clicked on this thread - I entered "The Twilight Zone"




Now how do I get out please!

 

There's no league mandate against Yao necessarily - I think JVG was complaining that the referees took Mark Cuban's comments about the moving screen to heart, and started calling that - while continuing to call ticky tack fouls on yao even though the Rockets have been complaining about this for years. He said that his referee friend admitted that they did in fact cconsider Cuban's comments.

The rest was pretty much how the refs simply don't know how to officiate Yao. It's the same for Shaq, chamberlain, etc.

His comments have been twisted by the media a little bit - and magnified by the fine - but he didn't say there was a consipracy at all.

 

You said it. It's because the game has been called a certain way the whole season long. The officials haven't been calling moving screens..............against anybody. Everybody has been doing it and getting away with it because the focus has been on cutting down on the defensive perimeter contact, no handchecking, etc. Now, come post season, the officials are going to call it differently because Cuban sent in tapes of it????????? And our team has been sending in tapes all season long about the ticky tack fouls on Yao and there hasn't been anything done.

It's really not a league mandate problem as much as it is an issue of the league controlling their officials. The officials should not have the right to change the way the game is called during the post season after calling it a certain way the whole season long. That is not fair to teams that spend the whole season learning how to play a certain way to stay within the rules and stay within their foul limits. It is not fair to expect teams to have to adjust their schemes and style of basketball because of officiating changes during the post season. Would it be fair if all of a sudden the league did away with the 3 point shot 2 games into the playoffs? Would it be fair if 2 games into the post season the league changed to the old 3 shots to make to 2 free throw rule? Would it be fair for the league to do away with the zone defense 2 games into the post season? Would it be fair to the teams and players if the league told the officials to all of a sudden let all the handchecking go and not call the perimeter handchecking foul 2 games into the post season?

Those things change the dynamics of the game and change the power structure by throwing more weight behind certain players whom benefit from the rules changes. Rules change and officiating style has to be established at the beginning of the season and maintained throughout the season for the playoffs to have integrity and for the true champion of the league to emerge. The champion of the league is the team that best adjusts to the rules and plays the best ball given the set of rules and manner of officiating that is established. The champion of the league should not be the team that is able to play best under rule changes and officiating changes that take place 2 games into the post season. The GM's have to go find players that fit the system of rules and officiating the best. The coaches have to coach those players to fit that system of rules and officiating the best. They aren't allowed to make trades and switch up their rosters 2 games into the playoffs. The coaches don't have enough time to install different offenses and defenses to adjust to the different officiating in the playoffs.

Changes in rules and officiating should take place in the offseason, and then enforced from the preseason on and that should be it.

AT THE VERY LEAST, IF THE LEAGUE OR THE OFFICIALS ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE RULES OR CHANGE THE STYLE OF OFFICIATING, THEY SHOULD INFORM EVERY TEAM ABOUT THE CHANGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The league's system of managing their officials and managing the officiating style and officiating changes SUCKS! It's not fair and it hurts the credibility and the integrity of the league.

 

Officials are always given instructions to look for specific violations but they are non-player specific. I'm sure those instructions are usually initiated by complaining. Van Gundy was wrong when he called the league's integrity into question.

 

How do we explain those unfair calls against Yao all season long if the league's integrity is not in question?