Talk about your one-sided officiating! In the Lakers vs. Knicks game, there was a 47-6 free throw discrepancy in favors of the Lakers. That's insane!
Random Fact - The Lakers have had less fouls called on them than their opponent in every single game except the first game of the year. This is why I hate NBA refs. Because they have Payton, Bryant, Malone, and Shaq, they get every single foul call and can do whatever they want on defense without getting called. Why can't NBA refs use the rule book to call fouls rather than who the player is? It's not fair to give a whole team an advantage every single game.
Has anyone considered that the reason the Lakers got so many fouls called on them against the Knicks was because the Lakers were playing against the Knicks? It's like sending a junior high school team against a college team, the best they can do is foul. What Knick players are even that good at drawing fouls in the first place? Shaq, Kobe, Payton, and Malone get to the line on a regular basis. Put them all on the same team, and it's about time that they start to add up to alot...
i agree with apollo creed. all 4 of the lakers stars are aggressive players. they attack the basket on a consistent basis. if all you do is take jump shots you're not gonna get many calls.
It's funny. People here cite that the Lakers don't play any defense, yet expect a lot of fouls to be called against them... Chances are if you're not playing tight defense, you won't get too many defensive fouls.
Who on the Knicks takes it to the basket? Shaq, Kobe, Malone, Payton all go hard to the hoop. It was lop-sided, but not a shocker.
http://www.theonion.com/3945/news1.html Advertisement ALBANY, NY—Members of the national media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting released a 255-page report Monday criticizing the American media for severely biased local sports coverage. Above: The Boston Globe's 2002 Super Bowl coverage barely mentions the opposing team. "In our extensive study of the nation's sports sections and broadcasts, we documented countless examples of shamelessly one-sided reporting, obvious speculation, and bald editorializing masquerading as journalism," FAIR spokesman Scott Wilborough said. "Coverage was heavily, sometimes brazenly, weighted toward the teams from a media source's own area. To look at the data, you would almost think that sports journalists aren't held to the same standards as other reporters." FAIR surveyed the sports reporting of more than 400 newspapers, as well as nearly 200 television and radio stations across the country.Wilborough said that, in an average article about a sports event, 87 percent of column space was devoted to coverage of the local team. "Photos almost always featured the home team, usually in a moment of victory," Wilborough said. "When the players and coaches of the opposing team were discussed, it was usually in the context of how they were 'destroyed' or 'stomped.'" In addition to granting local teams and athletes disproportionate amounts of column space and airtime, city dailies and newscasts often exaggerated local teams' wins and downplayed their losses. Wilborough held up two newspapers: a copy of the Detroit Evening News with the headline "Sanders to Join the Immortals" and a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer with the headline "McNabb's Brilliant Last Minute Heroics Destroy Green Bay." "It's frankly baffling how widespread the bias is," Wilborough said. "Journalists seem to lose their composure altogether when reporting on their local sports teams." The FAIR report, which characterized the bias as "irresponsible and pervasive," stated that "the blatant slanting of local sports coverage goes against the ethics of balanced journalism and contributes to a public perception that the local team in a particular area is the absolute best. This does a disservice to the very audience that the media claim to serve." "The fact is, only one team in any given sport will earn the distinction of being the best," Wilborough said. "Nevertheless, local news outlets go on asserting that an area team is number one, often against all logic. When a local team is performing poorly, journalists will often slant coverage to imply that the failure is circumstantial or temporary. They even go so far as to make totally indefensible claims such as 'We'll get 'em next year.'" According to the report, the bias can be found everywhere from New York and Chicago to smaller media markets like Green Bay, WI and South Bend, IN. "The bias is everywhere, but the New York and Boston media's coverage of this year's American League playoffs is a classic example," FAIR investigator Clark Hudson said. "And it all starts, as bad journalism so often does, with editorializing through biased word choice." Hudson said that in both the New York Post and The Boston Globe, home-team batters were referred to as "sluggers," pitchers as "hurlers," and managers as "field generals." "Hell, if I were the Boston Red Sox, I'd sue the New York Post for slander," Hudson said. Several reporters agreed that a problem exists, but disagreed about both its nature and its severity. "In my opinion, the most insidious aspect of unbalanced sports coverage is the bandwagon effect," sports journalist Lori Nickel said. "For example, Chicago news outlets support [coach] Dick Jauron blindly as long as the Bears are winning. But only one team can win the championship every year, so eventually, WGN and the Sun-Times start screaming for the firing of the entire coaching staff. How is that fair?" "I wholeheartedly agree that standards in the business are slipping," said ESPN's Jeremy Schaap, son of late sports-writing legend Dick Schaap. "I'd like to see a return to the respect and even-handedness not seen since the days of that great man and exemplary American, Howard Cosell." Wilborough said the problem may be larger than many realize. "Let's face it, sports news is the only news most people read," Wilborough said. "That's reason enough to clean it up. Otherwise, the media may start seeing bias and sensationalism as a formula for success. I don't think anyone wants to live in a country where that happens." not local...but...it is sports... and it was the knicks....
Apollo and macalu ... right there with you. I was at that game and though I wasn't aware the discrepancy was that large as I watched, I didn't sense that the refs were favoring the Lakers. Sure, there were some cheapie calls, but the Lakers were for the most part earning their trips to the line by consistently taking it to the rim. The Knicks have nobody but themselves to blame for only attempting 6 FTs all game. Their offense is pathetic, but it was almost unwatchable against LA ... It was clanked jumper after clanked jumper. No penetration whatsoever.
