No you can't, but if the league was really that biased towards big media markets, NYK should by now be competitive enough that they are on national TV frequently (like GSW). But then, Isiah Thomas did set that franchise back several years, and there's nothing Stern can do to fix that level of incompetence. The bigger point is San Antonio -- arguably one of the smallest markets with a team that plays a boring, grind it out style of basketball. How is it that they have 4 rings in the past decade and the showtime Phoenix Suns have zero?
Which is exactly why for the time being I'm siding with the more pragmatic explanation as opposed to the more outrageous side of claiming there's a full blown conspiracy going on...at least until more is learned. And hopefully with a source other than a weasel looking to make some money.
Donaghy couldn't make us lose by 40 points. The clock operator in Utah was suspect, but the Rockets still won a championship that year.
Its a shame the series was fixed.. damn. Jeff Van Gundy should get his money back, if it wasn't for Donaghy's punk ass, T-Mac would have gotten out of the first round, he averaged 30, 7, and 6 in that series, he played his heart out. Shame he has that label, partly because of the refs.
I think claims of a full-blown conspiracy don't have merit. However, I think at this point it is certainly believable that Mark Cuban was able to influence the officiating of that series, which definitely compromises the outcome even if there were other variables at work. We know that JVG put himself out there to the tune of a $100k fine on the issue of how Yao was refereed -- there is no reason to believe that JVG would go before the press and say "a ref told me they were instructed to call more fouls on Yao" just because he was being a sore loser, not because it was actually true. There may be questionable points in Donaghy's book, but in my opinion this one isn't.
Fair points, but I don't think Donaghy was necessarily pro-Mavs. I think the NBA just wanted the series to go to 7. Without ref interference, maybe the Rockets never have the chance to blow game 7..
I will note that in games 3 and 4 all of Yao's offensive foul turnovers came in the 2nd half, and were momentum killers. You cant see momentum in the box score or stat sheet. But if you watch the game, you can see it.
I agree all of that happened. I also feel like we've already known that for quite sometime because of JVG's comments after game 4 and I would trust his word over Donaghy's anyway. However, don't you think all teams contact the league about officiating problems they see? As long as compelling evidence is presented in the form of videotape and the league agrees that the rules of the game are not being upheld, is it not the league's responsibility to notify the refs about it? As long as there is a strict review process in place, I see this as a strength rather than a weakness. In this case I would have to see what evidence was provided before I can say the directive never should have been ordered (which I never will). But with Cuban behind it, I have a feeling it was pretty thorough.
Its that simple. I don't know when it happened, but this board and alot of rocket fans have become whiny ass cry babies. I mean, cuban does his work and sends in alot of tape to show what the refs missed while our management or whomever does't. Like i stated before, where was the rigging when the 80% free throw shooter yao and the mid 70's tracy was bricking free throws in a crucial game? Where was the entire team in game 7 when they got blown out by 40? If any rocket fan wants to think a series was poorly officaited, go watch 86 vs boston and you will get a better understanding of what its like to get poor calls. Just like someone rigged and paid vlade to back tap the freaking ball vs just grabbing it. How many times have you seen moses back tap and freaking rebound. Some of yall or to let it go. The better team won, the rox team choked and thats that. Maybe if the coach and gm would've had a better back up to howard than ryan bowen, they wouldve won the series. Maybe if the coach and gm wouldve had someone bigger than david wesley to guard stackhouse they would've won the series. Stop crying!
Except the three big games they lost (3,4,5) he disappeared in the fourth quarter I believe only making 4-15 fields goals total and 5-10 free throws. I never understood why his fourth quarter production seemed to drop so consistently during that series.
We got outplayed. Learn to live with it and do not blame the refs. How can you win the first two games on the road an lose a series? How can you lose a game 7 by 40 points?
You don't remember? They would triple team Tmac if they had to and let someone else try and beat them. Basically, they would only really guard Tmac and Yao. This carried on like that until only recently.
As stated by many others, yes it's b/c extending the series is good for business. If the Rockets win games 3 and 4, the league loses money. I'm not saying this was a willful fix from Stern. But it's death by a thousand cuts. The league agreed to look at Yao more closely. Sure, they are allowed to analyze their own performance. But that they did so only after game 2, and after prompting from Cuban, and in a way that had a major impact on only one team, is extremely questionable. If they are going to make what is essentially a rule change and still be fair, they need to explain this to both teams before the next games are played. They didn't. In fact, it's likely that the Mavs had an advantage as Cuban knew that he filed a complaint, but the Rockets didn't until after games 3 and 4. Anyway, this is old news and I'm trying not get to pissed off again. The worst thing about it, though, is that this was a case of the NBA becoming politics. I prefer to see the games decided on the court, and without the league's thumb (however gentle) tipping the scale.
Did the refs fix the series to make us lose? No. It isn't the reason why McGrady hasn't been out of the first round either. But they did extended the series longer than it would have been. I remember it being regarded as one of the better playoff series that year. The refs targeting Yao's screens just made it more difficult but that didn't make it impossible to beat the Mavericks before game 7. The Rockets had their chances still. I only wish the refs would have been more fair regarding the screens and called it evenly against the mavericks too. But sadly that is asking for too much.
This makes sense, except for the fact that teams must be made aware before the game that the refs will be changing the way they officiate. Otherwise one team is systematically penalized until they realize that what they learned before was wrong. Moreover, sudden rules changes like this inherently help one team over another, in a very predictable way. Consider Michael Jordan -- the greatest player, and greatest traveler, of all time. He got away with traveling virtually every play b/c the league decided they wouldn't enforce the classic traveling rule on him. Since Jordan, every wing player has learned to abuse the rules in the same way. Now imagine that halfway through an NBA finals, the league decides to start calling traveling exactly according to the rules. Suddenly Jordan loses half of his moves, and the Bulls lose their main scoring option. Bulls lose the series. Is that fair?
This is exactly what JVG said about how unfair it was to not know until he got confirmation from Stu Jackson after game 4. Two games after the notice to the refs.
