I wouldn't say by much, officials have the ability to over rule other officials. admitedly not reading the entire column, one other thing I have to disagree with is that an official in basketball more than any other sport has the ability to affect the outcome of a game. I would argue that a home plate umpire has the most power of any official in any of the three major sports with the strike zone, which at times can cause contreversy. but no one says baseball has an umpire issue in the public's eyes, which it doesn't. I don't know what the nba can do about its perception in the public as a poorly officiated game, and this incident doesn't help. but it has to do something with its public image, i really don't think nba officiating can be improved. they're in a no win situation. for instance, they followed the letter of the law in the spurs/suns series, but they still get accused of fixing the series which is ridiculous, because if its any team in the entire league that the nba wants in the finals its phoenix. but nba officiating isn't going to change, the athletes are too big and too fast to accurately call the game. foul calls are inherently subjective and will always will be. the nba is going to have to get it through to the public that's just the nature of the beast. just balls and strikes. there is a set definition but actual judgement is an entirely different issue.
Wow. So now the Spurs have asterisks on 2 of their 4 championships. Considering the fact that they couldn't sniff a championship with a Jackson run Shaq and Kobe tandem, they are officially a B-rate Championship squad in the NBA history book.
I know that officials can overrule other officials, but doesn't the head ref get the final decision? In that case, Dougherty was number 29. Is that high up in the ranks? Making him the senior ref in that case?
I hate articles like this. It doesn't say anything. Where's the F***ing context? What's the normal movement of point spread in NBA games? Why the cutoff at 2 points; is there some significance to it? And how does he compare to the other refs? The same with regards to the FTs. What's "dramatic differential"? And again, how does it compare to other refs? The way the article is written, you can plug in any ref and his accurate numbers, and insinuate to the reader that said ref is dirty. I mean, is there a single ref who DOESN'T have several games where there's a huge FT differential? It's not even all that rare an occurence in the NBA.
Damn Suns fans...stop your crying. You lost to a better team. Damn Rocket fans...stop your crying. If we won titles in the same manner we wouldn't call our stuff tainted, and we surely don't like being put in the "MJ wasn't there" asterick category. The ref seems to have done some point shaving but there is no proof to suggest he was responsible for a team losing a playoff game. Wow...some bitter fan found some blown calls from a game in SAN ANTONIO. I'm sure I could make clips of blown calls supporting the home team from any playoff game, or regular season one....
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores107/107056/NBA713150.htm i remember this game look all the freethrows that the magic got at the end of the game? point shaving IMO
Numbers indicate unlikely outcomes in games Donaghy officiated http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=expertstatsdonaghy New article with some nice numbers to think about.
How the hell do you compare "MJ wasn't there" to a potentially fixed game by the Mob and being rewarded by cheapshots so that another team's 2nd best player misses the pivotal game in the series? Debate MJ all u want, but no one can dispute the Rockets were the best NBA team in 94 and 95. In 07, the Spurs were NOT the best team against the Suns. They benefitted from some asinine suspensions, a cheapshot by their own player, and probably a fixed game by an NBA ref paid off to help them win. Absolutely 0 comparison. The Spurs title in 07 will go down as the most illegitimate, irrelevant, and undeserved title in the history of professional sports. It shouldnt even be acknowledged by intelligent sports fans, because it was just a total sham.
Point shaving and game fixing are two different things. No one can dispute the Spurs in any of their seasons either. The best team is the one holding the trophy at the end, and that's how it will be remembered. Injuries, blown calls, teams getting knocked out early, etc...all excuses that no one remember later...except for the losing team. Really, we can play this game in most seasons: 2007 Spurs - Game 5 suspensions 2006 Heat - Wade getting MJ calls 2004 Lakers - Fishers shot should not have counted 2002 Lakers - Game 6 FT disparity in LA 2001 Lakers - D.Anderson injury 2000 Lakers - Duncan injury 1999 Spurs - short season 1998 Bulls - MJ pushed Russell 1995 & 94 Rockets - no Seattle, no Jordan, Hakeem traveling everywhere let a Jazz fan tell ya Again, I can pick blown calls from many playoff games and series. Just visit the message board of the losing team.... I watched the same series and didn't see any sham. I just saw one team lose due to: A) Their dumb players breaking a NBA rule that my grandmother knows about B) Their inability to play defense when they needed it And I find it laughable that any fan of the NBA in general would think the league or anyone else would fix a game for the Spurs....as if them winning really helps ratings, etc. I can't think of any other major team that folks care less about....
Absolutely agreed. I hate the whining from the Suns players, coaches, organizations, and fans. They seem to have rationalized away the loss with excuses, and now they have another one fed to them on a silver platter. If Game 3 is the supposed point-shaving game, I can't see how he caused the Suns to lose that game, or even how losing that game would have caused them to lose the series. They did win Game 4, didn't they, allowing them to go home with a 2-0 edge?
There is no MJ debate in the 94-95 Championship. Jordan was in the Playoffs, his Bulls lost to the Magic, Rockets dominated Magic. Undisputed. We may have very well met the Bulls in the 96-97 Finals if we had not lost a heart-breaker to the Jazz in the WCF.
You gotta change your name to Spurshouse. Fisher's shot should not have counted? LOL. Ok. That makes a lot of sense D. Anderson being out in 2001? Yeah, he would have changed the outcome of a series where SA was outscored by 30 ppg against a team that went 15-1 that offseason and destroyed SA in the playoffs 3 of the 4 years in the Kobe-Shaq-Phil era. So pretty much the only legit titles are 2003 and 2005, which are won by the hmmm...Spurs. Ok, dude. Your list just reeks of Spurs homerism. Every title they have something go wrong is asterisked. Funny how you mention the injury of a 3rd-4th tier player like Anderson in 2001 but ignore the key injuries to SUPERSTARS like Nowitzki and Webber which the Spurs benefitted from in their title run of 2003.
You can't get that shot off in .4 seconds. Fine, include those injuries as well. The point still remains that someone can whine about injuries or bad calls every year.....
Not that I agree that anything was fixed, but why would a gambling ref or the mob give a rats ass about the Spurs' TV ratings? The league, yes. Anyone else, no.
Why would the mob have a ref shave points on a high profile playoff game? Talk about killing a golden goose.
