Do you think the NBA is a fair game?

I've seen poster after poster comment that the refs didn't make a difference in the Blazer game last night and that the Clips were the better team. I think they can do that and still point out the lack of an unbiased nature in the way the games are reffed. Since many of them are bringing up other games and other teams, this doesn't sound like crying ClutchFan at all to me who as pointed out, thinks they should shoot something like 30+ FT's more than the other team every game.

 

It still gives off the Woe is me not being a selected franchise vibe. I hate going to other teams forums and thinking "damn, these guys are homers complaining about everything."

 

My biggest bugaboo right now is moving screens. Jordan sets very few screens which are NOT moving screens, but rarely is he called for it. The Clips, Warriors, and other teams really push the envelope for moving screens and not get it called.

Here's a standard game:
Clips do an obvious illegal screen, and the refs blow their whistle
Clips coaches and players whine
Refs wrongly call another immediate illegal screen on PDX
Refs ignore illegal screens for the rest of the game.
Refs: see we're "fair and balanced."

The reason why I agree with the OP is that it just seems like the NBA enforces illegal screens for some teams and not others. This gives some teams a huge advantage - and one can easily invent an entire conspiracy theory. Probably, what will happen is that the Clips getting away with this all series, will get pissed when the refs are biased in GS's favor instead of theirs in the 2nd round. They'll be like "the refs always hate us so much!"

The solution is simple, though revolting: The Blazers must simply become much, much better than whoever they face, and THEN we'll gain the refs favor. This isn't special about the Blazers. Ditto goes for most of the teams below us.

 

Clips are the more talented team and could win the series fair-and-square. So why the hell do the refs feel the need to tilt the playing field ?

 

It's the league as a whole. Not just the Blazers. I think the NBA is a joke, and this is a large reason why I have been more interested in college football in the last few years.

 

Interesting, so you would take talent over chemistry then?

 

Well last night the better team won BUT they certainly didn't need all the help the refs were giving them (especially late in the second quarter and early in the first quarter).

How convenient for the NBA that they only show the errors of the last two minutes?

I will be disgusted if the refs continue to let DeAndre Jordan set moving picks and camp in the paint... Don't get me started on CP58 and his flopping and initiating contact then getting mad... Dude is a fucking theater major.

 

I don't think it's impossibly biased and less attractive teams can overcome that if they are extremely well managed and don't make mistakes. The stars get the benefit of the doubt on calls so it does start creating a bigger division of talent than there really is sometimes (i.e. Blake Griffin calling the out of bounds and the ref buying it). I wasn't upset about the officiating last night and the refs aren't the reason the Blazers lost.

The NBA likes storylines but every team has to take their lumps to get to the finals, and it usually takes several seasons. While they do obviously want to see the top 4 seeds in the western conference play each other, I have been pleasantly surprised at how much the NBA is marketing Dame and the Blazers on a national level. Ultimately the Clips have more experience and talent but I think they're also marketing the future of the NBA in the Blazers right now. I have never seen a Blazer player get this kind of "NBA Ambassador" type marketing like Damian - including Bill Walton and Clyde Drexler.

 

It's definitely not unbias. That's why it's so hard for teams like Portland. We have to beat the other team and the refs on many nights.

 

As far as last night goes, the better team won. As far as this season goes, we're playing with house money and have no real reason to complain. However.......I have felt for many years....and have said so in this forum....that the NBA has turned into the basketball version of the WWF, and it all started with David Stern. It's all about the ratings and merchandise sales. The deck is stacked against the small market teams unless they either stumble into a genuine superstar (and can hold on to him) or they find and maintain a winning formula/culture as the Spurs did. I don't believe it's even open for argument for a second. I look back to 1991 finals against the Bulls as a prime example. Small market teams don't draw TV ratings unless they have an LBJ or Durant. It's okay if they get an occasional seat at the table, but God forbid that they get to the Finals. The "fans" won't stand for that and revenues suffer.

I'm still not sure yet if the refs are following league "guidance" or if they have their own agenda, but the quality of reffing (and the influence of individual referee biases) has reached the point of ridiculous. I don't care how fast paced the game might be, or how making the calls might slow down the game, referee influence/bias on the game is usually obvious by the middle of the second quarter and it seldom changes as the game goes on. And I usually end up feeling like I'm watching a carefully orchestrated script rather than an actual basketball game.

As TBPup pointed out, it's a business, not a game and I don't expect it to change in my lifetime. Nate hit this one solidly on the head. I have been a hardcore Blazer fan since 1970 but I've gotten so jaded that I wonder why I still care. Most days I'd rather watch a baseball game, if for no other reason than its a lot more difficult to jigger the results.....

 

It seems to me that umpires care a lot more about the honor and tradition of the sport, as well.

I just hate the arrogance that NBA refs seem to carry.

 

That's always been my biggest issue with the best players in the league - why, of all people, is LBJ allowed to travel? He doesn't need the extra help! Let Aminu travel - he's the one who needs some assistance to level the playing field, rather than further tipping it in the dominant player's advantage.

 

Small market teams are definitely underdogs unless they stumble on a coach like Pops or draft a player like Lillard. I wouldn't single the NBA out as any different from most sports and probably better than others when it comes to officiating. Boxing and Figure Skating are two of the worst. Marvin Haggler beat Sugar Ray Leonard fair and square and the decision to favor Sugar Ray took the undefeated record from Marvin...he retired afterwards and never boxed again. What we deal with in the NBA is nothing like baseballs strike zone or safe/out calls.

 

Be one ofwhat fan bases? Yes, We LOST the game last night, but if you didnt see some blatant favoring to the Clips by the refs, then you are blind. SO wehen we DO play a better game and are in it at the end, the refs will have the end say on who pulls the game out. Yes, we will be one of those fan basess that calls out the blatant BS the refs do. Are you serious? You dont think its valid to point out hot AMinu was in bounds but Griffin points to his shoe and says its out and so the ref calls it?
Your joking right?
Listen, I'm not one about complaining or even like listening to it, but there is a huge difference between whats valid complaining and whats invalid. Evereything Nate said in my opinion is 100% valid, and I think he left a few things out.

There are like 10 or so posts on here when you posted that...???? your also kidding right? For someone who has been more than negative regarding the team overall, now its disingenuous to complain about blatant bad referring? biased refereeing? Get outa here with that....

Thank you........

 

Really? Complaining about something like this is a "woe is me" attitude?


http://www.blazersedge.com/2016/4/17/11449414/nba-playoffs-video-blake-griffin-bad-call


Again... get out of here with that BS. This should be taken to the tops of the league as how biased the refs are and how they don't do their own job and allow star players to completely manipulate their whistle blowing.

This is about as wrong as it gets.....

 

A homework lesson. Go watch another teams game, and make an honest opinion of the officiating. Then go to that teams forum and read how many fans are saying they were jobbed by refs (even if you, an unbiased spectator watched and thought the team got all the "helpful" calls)

You see things through rose colored glasses a lot of times watching your own team play.

Orion your homer is showing bro.

 

If you think that link I posted is homerism, then I think you have very little common sense in this facet. Are you saying Aminu was in bounds? Are you saying the ref was correct about blowing the whistle because Griffin said so? Are you saying it isn't right for us, as fans, to point this out because we are biased?

I wear my homerism with pride... were in the playoffs.. but please make sure you address homerism with validity....

That's your homework lesson... explain yourself by answering my questions.

 

The NBA is so far from unbiased I think you'd need to be completely blind to think/see otherwise. The NBA and the Blazers were my first love of any sport and it wasn't even close. But the older I get and the more I've watched, the less maniacal I get over the NBA and the Blazers. It's hard to put that much emotion and faith in to something that is teetering on the edge of being the next WWE. Because of this I have become a much bigger NFL fan over the course of the last 10 years. But.....Go Blazers. I keep a shred of faith that they can overcome the biases of the NBA machine (like they did vs Houston). It's going to take a lot of magic. But it's possible. I'm just no longer holding my breath.

 

I didn't even look at your article. There are some plays that are called incorrectly through a game. It happens. But when we get thumped by a team better than us, the last thing I want to read is people bitching about refs.

Come on bro, we were throttled by 20. Just stop.

 

Next season we will have Greg Menroe.