I watch all the regular season, pretty much every game. It passes the boredom, and I love my Rockets. But I refuse to endure the lunacy of putting my happiness and joy in the hands of NBA officials. And, honestly, I don’t think it’s always corrupt. I think a lot of times it’s just garden-variety incompetence and the impossibility of calling a game that passed up its rulebook decades ago. But I do think sometimes it’s corrupt and sometimes league-nudged toward a desired narrative. Things like 0-6 with Foster just aren’t a coincidence. It’s an embarrassing, bordering on criminally negligent shame that any NBA fan should know the name of one, single NBA ref. As if they are in any way, shape or form the entertainment product. It’s a broken system, and that broken system makes filthy lucre hand over fist. So all I can do is avoid the aggravation and watch when the refs allow my team to win. I’d have enjoyed this win like no other in my lifetime. The Warriors are a discredit to sporting competition. And we had them. Injuries. Refs. **** sports. Go Astros.
The NBA has screwed over a lot of teams with shoddy and corrupt officiating in recent years, but that 1993 Sonics-Rockets series was not one of them. The Rockets cost themselves home court by losing to the 11-71 Mavs at home and the Spurs on the road. A win in either game would've secured the 2nd best record in the West. The loss at San Antonio was partly due to the league in that Robinson dunked the ball after the buzzer to force overtime where the Spurs won. But this was before the era of replay, so the refs couldn't overturn the call. The Mavs loss however was all on the Rockets. So as a result, the Rockets had to play Game 7 of that series on the road. And this was one of those playoff matchups where the home team won every game. The first 6 were all blowouts. Game 7 was a classic though. The Rockets were up double figures at the half, but Seattle came storming back. It went to OT where the Sonics edged out the Rockets by 3 points. Now there were some blown calls late in the 4th where the ball was knocked out of bounds by Seattle, but the refs gave them possession. But again, this was before the era of replay. I think those were legitimately blown calls and not shady officiating favoring Seattle. Now if you wanna talk rigged games in that postseason, just take a look at Game 7 between the Sonics and Suns. That series was a back-and-forth slugfest. The teams alternated wins and it was tied 3-3 going back to Phoenix for the decisive game. The NBA wanted no part of Seattle in the Finals. This wasn't 1996 when Payton and Kemp were established superstars. They wanted Barkley, the MVP, and the league's best regular season team, the Suns, facing off against Jordan and the Bulls. So what happens in Game 7? Seattle shoots 36 free throws. Phoenix shoots 64! 64 g-ddamn free throws in a single game! The Sonics were whistled for 11 more fouls than the Suns. It was a precursor to the Kings-Lakers Game 6 screwjob.
If I remember correctly, Gary Payton also applied full court press more than anyone else, and Kenny Smith had struggles handling it...
That honestly holds no interest for me, much like I bemoaned the quitten superteam idea. If we fully Franken-team, we're no better than the Worriers.
I agree with this assessment. But in the history of NBA playoff series affected by shoddy officiating that I witnessed, this is one that adds to the overall feeling I personally have about the NBA in general. Whether the officiating was a legitimate blown call or something worse, the wrong outcome occurred and a team was cheated. And that's all that really matters at the end of the day.
I actually liked watching streamed replays because there was no commercials and I can fast forward 5 seconds when they bring the ball up. Easy to instant replay too. Less of a social feel, but I'm not in Houston so it's harder to find Rockets fans around me.
You don’t need league pass to watch Rockets basketball. I stopped league pass years ago and catch 95% of the games for free. Plenty of sources out there. As for me I wont stop watching Rocket basketball, I bleed red and yellow. We all know if we would of hit 1/3 of our 3’s last game we would be in the finals. The future is bright and the league is on notice.
I prepared myself by betting on GSW. But still I'm done with NBA, not going to watch Finals at all. Not going to watch any live games next year. Not buying any NBA stuff.
Canceled league pass last year, no regrets. Definitely not going to watch any games next season. May follow in the playoffs if games don’t happen same night as an Astros game. I just can’t buy into a professional sports league where the refs have that much influence, it’s obscene.
Curious... who do you think is worse in terms of influencing the game: Scott Foster or Angel Hernandez? I think baseball was the sport that gave the most power to the officials until QuesTec came along over a decade ago...
The league just took a gigantic dump on you, me and the entire Rockets franchise. How can you just shrug that off?
I haven watch the Finals but in twitter it seems like some highway robbery is happening, lol I hope this trigger some change, this is becoming so clear now.
Smh I still dont undestand why nba wont use tennis like replay where one can ask for a challenge replay and if they got it right, keep the replay challenge and wrong got deducted. Nba too scared or wont because vegas and corrupt officials wont be able to control the game anymore like tony sisters and scott fcker ...
