Yao Ming targeted? JVG might have been right in 2005

I can't imagine what Yao is feeling right now personally. The officials up to this point still have not figured out how to officiate Yao. That's been a frustration for Yao and the Rockets ever since he entered the league. And I had thought that refs were just that plain stupid, or maybe it was just that hard to officiate a 7'5'' center, just like how refs always had trouble calling for Shaq. Really, about 4 out of 5 games, the officiating on Yao is terrible... Now, it becomes a lot clearer why that is. Simply, the refs always had their sights set out on Yao. This undoubtedly extends further than just that Dallas series. Us Rockets fans have seen all through the regular seasons and playoffs that Yao is intentionally officiated unfairly. Tmac as well over the years has gotten less calls in his favor and less trips to the free throw line. It may be the product of being on the same team as Yao. It is just sickening.

Also, Yao over the years has had to put up with the criticisms that he's soft or that he's a big whiner to the refs. Now we see that Yao may have had to play "soft" to avoid the fouls that were consistently being called on him. The refs always had a microscope on him; when Yao pushed...foul, when Yao was trying to establish position...foul, when Yao was aggressive and drew contact...no foul, when Yao was in the paint for too long... 3 seconds. Although I'll admit that some of the time, the calls are correct, most were too picky and critical. JVG said one time that officiating shouldn't go straight by the book; if it did I would think there'd be 3 to 4 fouls on every possession. In Yao's case, you would think that all three refs had eyes only for him. This would force a player to watch his every one of his movements and play rigidly with the appearance of not being aggressive enough. All too often a Rockets game was a battle between the Rockets and the officials, not against the other team. It really pains me to think that the refs have been limiting Yao's potential and this team's success. This ends my rant.

 

JVG should get his money back!

 

There is one way to fix this. That is to make the referee's a separate organization from the NBA. With their own board of directors, their own president, and their own independent referees. Funded not by the NBA but by some other source. Maybe the gov't with an allocated amount by each team to fund this new agency. Cut out all the shenanigans in the NBA. Make the ref's independent and call these games fairly.

 

This is correct. He can pick and choose. Anyone could claim there's conspiracy there!

 

The truth is that none of the fridge players at the center position these days can stop Yao if they were let play each other fairly and squarely. Imagine possession after possession that the ball is passed to Yao under the basket and he just put it into the hole? Fans would get bored and TV ratings would take a dive. So it is understandable that they had to do something to make the battle under the basket more 'interesting'. Ask Shaq.

 

mlwoo you are just being ridiculous. Do you believe that David Stern is an ethical commissioner? I don't.

 

Other than this, what has given you that thought? I think David Stern is a great commissioner.

 

Don't know if anyone has posted this already. Here's a link to the actual court filing. Apparently there is also one other instance mentioned about a regular season game where a ref called more fouls on one team than another because of a friendship with a GM.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0611081nba1.html

 

I guess it was the refs fault for yao shooting 44% less than 1blk and grabbing 12 rebs total in the last 2 games last yr. Oh, how can we forget the 4 to's per.

This is crazy to say the least and makes no sense. Yao gets his share of poor calls, but no more than Shaq,Dream or Robinson. Those guys played through them. Why would a mandate come down to get rid of the 4th largest city and the biggest international star that is from a country of 1 billion people. If more people watched a regular season game between Yao and Yi, what would the ratings be like if yao was in the finals. It would be the most watched event ever. This makes no sense from a financial point at the minimum. The rox lost to a better team then, had chances to close the series out but Yao and tracy missed ft's in the 4th qt that cost them. In game 7 they didnt even show up.

 

Bad calls, unfair officiating, foul troubles, opposing players allowed to do extra 'stuffs' to stop you, hesitation to go after rebounds and to go all out to block shots because of the possibility of touchy foul calls,...etc... could lead to what you mentioned there. Actually, that is exactly what guys have been talking about in this thread for more than 10 pages. Why is it that difficult to understand?

 

Please correct me if i am wrong but wasn't Cuban running a website keeping statistics on ref calls? Could this not have been motivation for the league to say hey look we want the Mavs to win to get Cuban off our ass? He's got $.
Also when it comes down to the teams who draws ore i wonder in TV ratings and in ticket sales the Rox or the Mavs? perhaps this is a factor?

 

i think it was posted a few pages back

i dont remember if it was game 3 or 4 of the 2005 series but i remember there was a play during a huge rockets run late where barry made a great pass to yao who caught it was pushed and shot the ball and made the basket as he was falling down to the floor and instead of the basket and a FT the refs debated and made it a side line out of bounds. the rockets did not score on the following possesion and it totally killed any momentum the rockets had going for them and dallas went on a run themselves to close the game out. I remember that play so vividly because the whole game changed on that one play the TC went from rocking like crazy to dead quiet and the whole team's body language changed when they saw an obvious and 1 call become a sideline out. Even the TNT guys were commenting on how they couldnt believe that wasnt an 'and 1'

now i am not saying every game the rockets lost that series was due to the refs but if any of what JVG said was true with the weird treatment of yao that series then obviously something was up to make the series go as far as possible. Remember no one bet on the rockets winning the first two in dallas it was the biggest shock in the basketball world at the time. Dallas was technically the 2nd/3rd seed that year (before the change in the division winner seeding rule) but was forced to be the 4th seed to play us (i think we would have played seattle had the teams been seeded the way they are now)

so not only were we going up against a team better than us, they were actually a lot better than what their seeding indicated that year. just really upset for all the flak that our stars get for not making it out of the first round when it seems like they probably could have that year against the mavs everything was going for them.

/end rant

 

Story is front page of Yahoo! now.

 

I'm sure the league is cowering at the thought of a negative Mark Cuban blog post.

 

Wow....

This story is really starting to turn into a massive storm.

Stern better get control quick.

 

I wonder if Yao's FTAs increase next year as the league tries to make nice.

 

I bet they will if he attacks the basket instead of shooting fadeaway jumpers.

 

yao will never be officiated fairly. they are using yao to draw fans from china and thats it. they dont give a dang if he gets killed out there every night.

i really dont think there's any hope for the rockets to win a playoff series when the refs are against us.

 

A ref's non-calls can certainly effect all of that. If the refs let defenders pound Yao without a foul call, then that''s going to effect his shooting and his ability to get rebounds.

 

The most real comment and I couldn't agree more.. What happened to real competition?