No wonder phil and kobe were talking like they already won.. i'd be utterly f'ing shocked if the Rockets win a close game..
This is unbelievable..if you don't think David Stern tries to influences the outcomes of games then why would he use someone who has so much controversy surrounding his ability to officiate games in a game like today?!
Obviously, there is no immediate impact of this, but this forum has national exposure. You can bet if I'm a national media journalist and I'm assigned the task of doing a column for this series, this is the first place I'll go for a scoop. If you're doing research you will: 1) Go to the game. 2) Go to the press conferences. 3) Go to Clutchfans and LakersGround.
Now, it is literally us against the world, instead of just figuratively. And to think I was so excited about this game...
I re-watched Game 2 a little bit. (Thanks to R2K videos) You may take a look at 1:26:30 when Crawford did seem apologetic to Phil Jackson when he threw Fisher out, as suggested by BleedRed. I know it's all conspiracy but Crawford's hand gestures did suggest that he talked to Phil Jackson in an apologetic way. You guys take a look:
Guys, we don't have to wait for the media to come here.. EVERYONE send this comment to ADANDE at ESPN. "Love your articles and your objectivity man.. but they just announced Joey Crawford as lead official for today's game.. KO, Peace out, Et all.. When will the Rockets ever get a fair shot in this rigged league? Adande.. you should publish this in your next article.. Lakers are 19-9 in their last 28 playoff games.. excluding last one, and 10-1 with Joey Crawford as the referee. That one loss was the 36 point blowout to the Celtics in last years' Game 6 finals.. Now tell me, as a die hard rockets' fan, how the hell do I not get upset 3 hours before a game starts just due to the referee assignment?" http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/mailbagESPN?event_id=16861
Your stats are wrong. Crawford has only done 8 games with LA the past two seasons(32 games total). Lakers are 14-10 without Crawford. 7-1 with Crawford. The entire point of Crawford being blasted as ref is more of a WE KNEW THIS GUY WAS GOING TO GET THE ASSIGNMENT ISSUE.
the entire problem is that we know who joey crawford is and we know that the game will be heavily influenced by a person who isn't a basketball player. I can't come out and say that this is the death of the rockets because he could just as easily flip on the lakers, but the fact that he has so much power is downright embarrassing for the league, and really a shame.
I honestly think that when the inevitable occurs - quick fouls on our "bigs" - Adelman should not let it alter the game. Let the refs foul us out while the world's watching, but let's play our game so the Laker haters out there (and there are many) may judge for themselves what happens. I do agree with those that think JCraw could be an intriguing reverse-X-factor here though. He's been known to react to home crowd fans in bizarre ways.
The league would be unwise to attempt to 'fix' this game. That being said, I really hope we pull off the upset!
LOL.. exactly the type of veteran leadership you want in a referee crew for the biggest game in the playoffs so far.. Throw out Duncan for laughing?? Vet leadership baby!
"No referee will officiate a game in the same city within 14 days." NBA referee guide. http://www.nba.com/media/2008-09-RefereeGuide.pdf page 74 game 2 was 11 days ago.
