Basketball players are people too. When you know the refs will call fouls on your face when it hits an elbow, you generally play below par of what you're capable of. You're right. The Adelman team choked. You know why the Lakers never choke? Because there's less pressure playing 8 on 5.
ur wrong. The Lakers choked in game 4 of the 2008 finals against the Celtics, losing a 20+ point leads. were the officals helping the Celts The Lakers were perennial chokers in the 1960s, losing all 7 Finals against the Celts
The refs need some sort of stat system to keep them in check. Example, have someone watch their replays and give them points for making good calls, and subtract points for when they make a call that's horrible or they don't make a call that was pretty clear. Also, points away for unnecessary calls, etc. All refs should be consistent.
Ever heard of... oh, I dunno... watching a game? There's bad officiating, and then there's game 6 of those WCF. Rigged. Period. Any sane human being who watched that game knows it was a travesty. I'm guessing you're being an asshat just for the sake of being an asshat... Bill Simmons: from an officiating standpoint, the most one-sided game of the past decade ... at least six dubious calls against the Kings in the fourth quarter alone ... LA averaged 22 free throws a game during the first five games of the series, then attempted 27 freebies in the fourth quarter alone of Game 6. David Aldridge: "There is nothing I can say that will explain 27 free throws for the Lakers in the fourth quarter -- an amount staggering in its volume and impact on the game. It gave me pause. How can you explain it? How can you explain a game where Scot Pollard fouls out when he's two feet from Shaquille O'Neal, or that Doug Christie is called for a ridiculous touch foul just as Chris Webber spikes Kobe Bryant's drive to the hoop, or that Mike Bibby is called for a foul deep in the fourth quarter after Bryant pops him in the nose with an elbow?" "After Game 6, I went out to dinner in L.A. with a couple of sportswriters and three or four other folks who aren't in the business. Each one of us at the table had a college degree. None of us had a dog in this Lakers-Kings fight. But us Sports Guys wanted to see if we were overreacting. So we asked the woman with the business degree who has season tickets to an NBA team (not the Lakers, not the Kings) what her immediate reaction was after watching Friday. "They stole the game from the Kings," she said, matter of factly. The next morning, I call for a bellman for help with the bags. The door is open five seconds when he says, and I'm paraphrasing here because I don't generally quote bellmen, "What was up with that game last night? I mean, I'm a Laker fan, so I appreciate the calls. But I don't want to win that way. It was like Chris Webber was saying, 'I can't win, so why should I play hard?' "" Ralph Nader: "Dear Mr. Stern, At a time when the public's confidence is shaken by headlines reporting the breach of trust by corporate executives, it is important, during the public's relaxation time, for there to be maintained a sense of impartiality and professionalism in commercial sports performances. That sense was severely shaken in the now notorious officiating during Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. Calls by referees in the NBA are likely to be more subjective than in professional baseball or football. But as the judicious and balanced Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon wrote this Sunday, too many of the calls in the fourth quarter (when the Lakers received 27 foul shots) were "stunningly incorrect," all against Sacramento. After noting that the three referees in Game 6 "are three of the best in the game," he wrote: "I have never seen officiating in a game of consequence as bad as that in Game 6. ...When Pollard, on his sixth and final foul, didn't as much as touch Shaq. Didn't touch any part of him. You could see it on TV, see it at courtside. It wasn't a foul in any league in the world. And Divac, on his fifth foul, didn't foul Shaq. They weren't subjective or borderline or debatable. And these fouls not only resulted in free throws, they helped disqualify Sacramento's two low-post defenders." And one might add, in a 106-102 Lakers' victory, this officiating took away what would have been a Sacramento series victory in 6 games. This was not all. The Kobe Bryant elbow in the nose of Mike Bibby, who after lying on the floor groggy, went to the sideline bleeding, was in full view of the referee, who did nothing, prompted many fans to start wondering about what was motivating these officials." Tim Donaghy: "Referees A, F and G were officiating a playoff series between Teams 5 and 6 in May of 2002. It was the sixth game of a seven-game series, and a Team 5 victory that night would have ended the series. However, Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew referees A and F to be 'company men,' always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series. Referees A and F heavily favored Team 6. Personal fouls [resulting in obviously injured players] were ignored even when they occurred in full view of the referees. Conversely, the referees called made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give additional free throw opportunities for Team 6. Their foul-calling also led to the ejection of two Team 5 players. The referees' favoring of Team 6 led to that team's victory that night, and Team 6 came back from behind to win that series."
I'm going with the '92 blazers squad. Porter, Duckworth,, Buck Williams, veteran Ainge, a young Cliff Robinson and an in-his-prime Clyde the Glide who was 2nd behind MJ in the MVP race...they had a very good squad and played incredible trapping defense that made it seem like there were 6 men defending in the half court.
Totaly disagree with you from a talet stand point Porter < AB Clyde > Martin Kersey = Ariza B. Williams < Scola Duckworth < Yao Rockets have the potential this year of being a title contender but fans want them to make moves for a splash insted of forming a full team unit. The Rockets stand as a contender unless Yao gets injured again. Even if Yao gets injure if he's healthy around playoffs time the Rockets stand as a threat to the Lakers and if AB contiunes to improve along with the healty they can beat the Heat.
until the Rockets actually make it to the NBA finals TWICE, like Portland did with DREXLER, there's no contest, it's DREXLER's and RICK THE RULER's BLAZERs. And yes, health counts. I'll take a healthy team over a non healthy team any day of the week, and twice on sundays.
No way. Especially not at that point in Buck's career. Not even mid-80s Buck, those Nets teams were just plain miserable.
