Silver should pull the plug on Foster right now. He has that power. He should take it. This is a no win situation for the NBA. Foster is ****ed no matter what he does tonight. Both teams hate him. If he fixes it for the Rockets, it's still news. If he fixes it for GS, it's bigger news. I just don't see how Silver can just let it happen. He has to pull the plug on this like right now before it implodes. This is like strapping nuclear weapon to the back of a beluga whale and just expecting it's all going to come out ok.
I think it's a lose/lose situation, if Foster officiates correctly and the Rockets win, it'll be a way of silencing the crowd that might be starting to think it's fixed. NBA - "see nothing to see here", then game 6/7 screwing Rockets hard. If the Rockets lose the game but Foster appears to officiate fairly, it still doesn't fix the game 1 fiasco, and then those same borderline fans will jump back on "Harden/Rockets choke". Basically damned either way, unless the Rockets advance
i think the bigger picture is silver's problem. he is staring at a long prison sentence right now. only 2 people inside need to give truthful depositions and silver is toast.
PLOT TWIST: Foster will swallow his pride by not swallowing his whistle. Dirty ref doesn't mean he's a dumb ref.
This seems rather logical. Trust me, it's not that I don't think foster is a bad official. I personally don't buy the "league wide rig" though. I hope we focus on playing well rather than calls/no calls.
To play Devil's advocate, if Silver pulls Foster then he's more or less admitting that there IS a problem with the officiating. It's better to have Foster officiate and hope that the outcome (his officiating or his presence) doesn't sway one way or another than to pull Foster and let everyone assume that there's a bigger issue behind the curtain.
I agree. I don't think it's a league rigging of the games. I think there is a combination of several factors. 1) Officials are just bad in general 2) Basketball is hard to officiate 3) Harden has mastered a shot that can't be guarded without a foul (or by playing him from behind) and the officials don't want to give him a foul on every shot because it would be dictating the outcome of the game 4) Many of the officials have a genuine dislike for Chris Paul 5) The Rockets have antagonized the referees for a few years now through various actions 6) The officials are intimidated by the Warriors 7) Officials are intimidated at Oracle and let the crowd impact them
The team has been conditioned to play one way for 2-3 years now. For better or worse, that includes being able to shoot 3s a certain way and, depending on the contact, receiving/expecting a call to be called. As a shooter, you can't change your shot (which includes your landing) in such a short amount of time and expect positive results.
What's comical to me is the NBA's response to the report that was leaked to the media. "We do not agree with their methodology" lol On what grounds are you disagreeing with the methodology? The data comes from the guy and his team that holds an annual Analytics Conference for Christ's sake.
What the league is saying is they don't agree with the Rockets method of assigning point values. Basically they are saying that you can't do it that way because it falls under the fallacy of the predetermined outcome. You can't just say "Oh look, these missed calls equal 18 points so we should have won" because if just one of those calls was done correctly the others may not have happened at all because the players adjusted. That's what they are "disagreeing with the methodology" about. Edit: To be clear here, I think they are right about that and I think Morey would say "Yeah no **** Sherlock that's also part of the point!" If they did call things more evenly the teams would play differently and we'd have a different result. I don't think Morey thinks the Rockets need to be taking 18 more free throws per game for example. On the landing spot foul, if you call it once, maybe twice, you won't have to call it the 3rd, 4th or 5th time because the Warriors won't keep doing it. They are doing it BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY WON'T GET CALLED FOR IT.
Couldn't agree more. I think it is going to be a very telling game as far as the character of harden, paul and the rockets in general. I genuinely hope they can come out and play through all the noise. IMO if they focus on the calls etc. they have no chance to win. On the flip side, if they pull this out by playing good, fundamental basketball it will give them a TON of confidence moving forward
I see that now though, if you strip out the assigned points, wouldn't it still convey the point that, if there were enough significant missed calls, that the outcome of the game was changed/swayed?
Yes lol exactly. Morey probably rolled his eyes at the response from the league. They are taking the cop out of disagreeing with the points part, but the points part is just a way to give some context to the fouls so people can grasp the difference in numerical terms. The bigger point is that the officiating is clearly biased (whether intentionally or not) and (and this is THE point) IT DOESN'T EVEN OUT. Yo NBA! by your own metrics the referees have favored the Warriors over the Rockets with their officiating in 7 out of 8 playoff games. That's staggering and it has cost the Rockets at least one chance at a title.
Guys the hard truth is that harden and cp go out of their way to initiate contact a lot. If they would just focus on making shots instead this wouldn’t be an issue ( I know the first three klay contests should of been fouls ) but Harden began to exaggerate and oversell. I think Foster has no choice but to be pro Houston tonight..
