Van Gundy Challenges Officials and Says an Owner Is to Blame

Its about Damn Freaking TIME!!!

 

There are few players in the league that should average over 5 fouls a night...Yao shouldn't be one of them. Especially the types of fouls called on him. This is a good move by JVG.

I've been thinking, and maybe it's just the emotion stemming from the series, but if there is one owner in the game I would ever accuse of rigging a game with the officials it is Cuban. I know he sticks up for his team more than enough through the media...but it wouldn't surprise me if he ever got caught bribing officials. He just seems to be too much of a fan (which can be a good thing) than an owner. It's good for an owner to be enthused and stay involved, but Mr. Cuban takes it a little too far.

 

This is a good move by JVG. Phil Jackson always complained about the officials and it paid off in the next game. The calls were just as bad in the first 2 games, but we won, so he didn't need to stir the pot.

 

Nah lol bribing officials wow. That would be sad. Then NBA would definitely be very similar to WWE. I hope not.

 

NOTHING and I mean NOTHING is gonna be done about it anyhow.......It clearly means the FIX is in, In the NBA

 

The refs probably rationalize the whole thing as.... "We fouled out their center (Dampier)... so what's the big deal? It was even!"

Well, when your 2nd best player is your CENTER, and their center is nowhere near a good player (despite what HE thinks), it is most definitely NOT even.

Also, Stu Jackson would never know if this was happening or not. Refs don't like to be called out, regardless of whether or not the league is involved... and who is most likely to call out the refs publicly? Cuban.

The fact that they made it so blatantly obvious on Saturday is what suprised me... normally, you favor the team that's the aggressor, and when the Rockets had an 88-82 lead, they had the Mavs back-pedalling. But, that all quickly changed with some cheap-ass calls.

 

It is a GENIUS strategy, I just hope it really IS true and not a bunch of crap spewed by JVG to scare off the officials.

The way Yao is officiated is absolutely sick, it makes me sick, and it makes cringe because I feel a sense of injustice, and that is the worst feeling in the world.

Here is to hoping the NBA gets its act together.

 

Ding ding ding! We have a winner.

Don't make this out to be a huge conspiracy, guys. This is just Politics 101. Cuban raised a public stink and made the refs feel pressure to look closely at Yao. That made them err on the side of calling stuff if they weren't sure. Van Gundy is now raising a public stink so the refs will feel equal pressure not to call stuff on Yao if they aren't sure. With Game 5 in Dallas, it's crucial to make the refs feel that the NBA, the media, and fans as a whole -- not just 20,000 screaming Mavs fans in that arena -- are watching how the refs call Yao. If this spares Yao 2 foul calls and keeps him in the game an extra 10 minutes, it could well make the difference between moving on and going fishing.

As for that "got to give Cuban credit" crap, that's just an artful way of saying Cuban is a whining sleazeball and the refs are servicing him. If a little bit of artful language spares Van Gundy a fine over this, bully for him.

 

On the contrary... refs (and the NBA) don't like this kind of press. Thus, they'll do everything to try to stop it.

If they continue to call these same fouls on Yao in game 5, expect to hear NOTHING ELSE but Ref-bashing all day tuesday, and all day wednesday.

JVG has planted the bomb... and he's told the NBA and the refs about it. If they continue to make the BS calls, and it costs us games, he will detonate... and the NBA will have a INTERNATIONAL crisis on its hands, because China will have a freakin field-day w/ this for the entire off-season.

 

The sports media loves a soap opera (see Kobe, Shaq & Phil)--I betcha this will be all over the sports talk shows tomorrow...

Charles, Kenny and Magic will be discussing it during pre-game for sure....

 

In the Chronicle too.


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3163289

DALLAS - The fix might not be in, but Jeff Van Gundy said something with the NBA is very much broken.

If his team isn't having enough trouble with the Mavericks — and it is — Van Gundy said the Rockets, and particularly Yao Ming, must also go against the officials, the NBA and Mark Cuban's willingness to pay any fine.

Van Gundy said he had been tipped by an NBA official that the league had ordered its referees to treat Yao differently than other players, a charge Van Gundy said his review of game tapes has confirmed.

"When you review his fouls, he looked — you've got to give Mark Cuban credit," Van Gundy said. "They said it on TNT last night. He's been calling and calling about Yao. You've got to give the guy credit. He's taken a lot of fines in his time. He's been on them hard. He's gotten the benefit.


"Before Game 3, I got a call from another official in the NBA who's not in the playoffs that I've known forever, and he told me they were looking at Yao harder because of Mark's complaints. It proved prophetic really the last couple games. I didn't think that really worked in the NBA, but in this case it has."

Cuban, who described Van Gundy as an "amazing coach," said the Mavericks have asked the league to review examples of Yao and Dikembe Mutombo setting screens but that the Rockets' centers have actually gotten away with fouls that have not been called against them.


"That's crazy," Cuban said. "It's also an insult to officials. They don't officiate individual players differently. Did he notice that Damp (Erick Dampier) has gotten two quick fouls in every game and has been limited by foul trouble? Has he ever looked at Shawn Bradley's fouls per minute? They both seem to have the same type of fouls called on them.

"I will tell you what we did do, and I can tell you it has had zero impact on the officiating of the games. We sent in a list of what we thought could be moving screens on Yao and Dikembe from a game in the series. We wanted clarification from the league if our assessment of what was going on was correct. The league came back and told us of the 28 that we turned in from this game, nine were actually moving screens and should have been called but were not.

"We have the same type of examples from every game in the series. So if anything, he has it completely backward."

This is not a new complaint for the Rockets, but in four games of the playoff series against the Mavericks heading into tonight's Game 5 at American Airlines Center, Yao has averaged five personal fouls in 28 minutes per game. He played 36 minutes in Game 2, scoring 33 points on 13-of-14 shooting. But in the Rockets' losses in Games 3 and 4, Yao averaged 22.5 minutes and 15.5 points.

"I think Yao all year has had a target on his back for whatever reason," Van Gundy said. "I don't know what the reason would be, whether it's his size, his kindness, whatever. There's many other things it could be, too. But you look at the foul calls he gets, and they're not appropriate.

"His illegal screen, then you look at Dampier's illegal screen. I'm not saying they should call Dampier on his illegal screen that got (Michael) Finley open late, but certainly it was the same type of movement as Yao.

"It's puzzling, and it's not because it happened all year. I give (Cuban) credit. He's worked the NBA about officiating and officials and calls. It was corroborated out of the blue when another official calls ... that I've known forever and tells you after we're up 2-0, 'Look, they're targeting him more. It's on their Web site. There's nothing you can do about it. It has had an impact."

NBA officials are required to do an online review of their performance in every game, including critiques from NBA supervisor of officials Ronnie Nunn. NBA senior vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson denied, however, that there have been specific orders to officiate Yao "harder."

"No such directive was given to the officials regarding Yao Ming or any other player or team in the playoffs," Jackson said, declining to answer questions.

Van Gundy said during the regular season he had sent tapes of his complaints to league officials. But he said he saw no benefit from those efforts and no longer protests Yao's treatment in order to place greater emphasis on improving Yao's play and his teammates' ability to involve him.

"It didn't help us," Van Gundy said. "It obviously helped in this series, helped them. But it never proved profitable. I don't really want to go down that road after every game.

"As a coach, you can get overwhelmed about all that which you have no control over. We've got to play well. That's the No. 1 thing. We have to play well to give ourselves a chance to win. I don't talk to those guys anymore about that.

"I talked to Ronnie Nunn a few times early in the year about refereeing size better. He's a great man. He was a great official. But that had a more negative impact than a positive impact. I think Yao and I both got more frustrated. We just accept whatever bias there is against him and work through it."

Of the five fouls called on Yao on Saturday, one came on a screen, one came when he was working for low-post position, one came on a Jason Terry drive, one came on a Dirk Nowitzki drive, and one came on a defensive rebound. None was for fouling the player he was assigned to defend, and most left Yao shocked and appearing disheartened.

"It seems like he needs to stop worrying about the refs looking at him and whether he's going to get an offensive foul or the way he's posting up," Mutombo said. "The refs need to let him go with his game and not call the game based on his height or his weight.

"When you're young like him and don't have that much experience in the playoffs, you get caught mentally — 'If I post up strong this time, is the ref going to call a foul?' But he's growing up and learning a lot. He has to play. Just enjoy yourself. That's what I tell him every day."

Van Gundy said the Mavericks also did a good job defending Yao and making it difficult for the Rockets to get him the ball inside.

"You can't discount what they're doing," Van Gundy said. "The defense always has an impact on what you're doing. You're not out there playing by yourself. Certainly their defense has had an impact on us. At times we could have done a better job entering the ball into him and finding him. And yet he also has to be able to stay on the floor."

The inability to keep Yao on the floor has sent the Rockets searching for answers — and seeing more opponents than just the Mavericks.

 

I think 1.5 BILLION Chinese people also deserved to know how Yao is treated by NBA refs.

Let's get this one on chinese media and make everybody know NBA is no longer(or ever was) a fair place to compete.

so much about stein's global vision, crap.

 

JVG - the current active KING of playoff mind-games. (with Phil Jackson being the all-time leader).

You can just see that JVG didn't want to bust this out till he had to... at the beginning of a series, it probably would have lost its luster by now, and there's no point in arguing at the end of the series.

So he waits till the absolute middle... when its tied... and busts it out when the tension of this series is at its highest, so the refs (and the world) has no choice but to listen, since everybody is so into how this series is going.

If we had won yesterday, there's no way that JVG calls out the refs... but now he has to.

Pure genius.

 

I am thrilled JVG finally spoke up. Phil Jackson does this kind of stuff all the time when he has to defend his players.

 

P.S.

"Other things." Man, if that isn't a hint to 1.3 billion people the NBA can't afford to piss off, I really WILL carry Jeff Van Gundy's baby. Talk about going nuclear.

 

and this guy has Dirk. Unbelieveable. Dirk gets away with murder and gets to the line alot.

 

lol

The refs suck

I hope we get some justice..

 

"No such directive was given to the officials regarding Yao Ming or any other player or team in the playoffs," Jackson said, declining to answer questions."

Ok. NBA didn’t send out a memo. But I bet they just give out some hints that Yao should be watched more closely.

Rockets should do what Cuban did. Send a tape with all the BS calls on Yao this entire season and demand for clarification.

 

Cuban rationalizes that Dampier gets foul calls... so why shouldn't Yao.

In that case, why doesn't Ryan Bowen get the same treatment as Dirk?

Maybe a savvy reporter should ask Cuban THAT question... he's truly an idiot.

But, they got what they wanted... there's no way we win a series if the refs don't let Yao get away with anything more than Eric Dampier gets away with.

 

Just to get you guys on the right page...

Does Yao get away w/ some moving picks? Yes... but should Yao be reffed with the same scrutiny as some scrub rookie, or no-talent banger, or basically another Ryan Bowen?

Hell no. Its because of Cuban that it is like that right now.