<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">CHICAGO ? So what does 9,452 points, nearly full eight NBA seasons and one All-Star appearance get you? In Rashard Lewis' opinion, not a whole lot. In fact, the Sonics forward believes he's being unfairly disrespected by referees and doesn't receive the benefit of the doubt from officials that other front-line players are supposedly given. "I feel like they look at me as equal to some of the other guys and I put in a lot of work," Lewis said before Seattle's 99-84 loss to Chicago. "I feel like I should get a little bit more respect." Lewis isn't the first NBA player to play the Rodney Dangerfield card, but the statistics support his case. Entering Wednesday's game, he was 15th in the NBA in points with a 22.8 scoring average and tied for 48th in free-throw attempts per game at 4.8. The disparity baffles Lewis. He said the nightly abuse in the paint has him thinking that maybe he should verbally blow up on the court. "I hate to just blow up and get a technical and have myself vulnerable to getting ejected out of the game," he said. "That wouldn't do nothing but hurt my team. At the same time, I have to do something. "I plan to continue to talk to the refs in a respectful way and hopefully one day they will see the light that I'm not one of those guys that talks crazy to the refs or one of the guys who gets 10 to 15 technicals." To listen to coach Bob Hill, a technical or two wouldn't be a bad thing. "I think it would help," he said. "The one thing I don't want to happen and we talked about it at the end of the season is where he gets distracted and we lose him for a while." Last season, Hill suggested that Collison should express himself more verbally on the court to officials. "It [a technical] might help," the coach said. "It might help if I get one. It might." Hill also said Lewis would be better served if he were to attack the basket. "The only way he's going to get to the foul line is to embrace quick decisions," he said. "So on ball reversals he's got to be ready and he's got to drive the ball. Especially with the new rules. "Sometimes I think he settles for the three. He can shoot 'em so I don't have any problem with it, but sometimes there's opportunities where he could drive it and perhaps get an easy foul. ... I've been talking to him about that."</div> Source
A jumpshooter complaining he doesn't get to the line enough? Rashard has all the tools to get to the bucket at will, but he settles for the jumpshot too much. You're not going to get calls shooting turnaround Js everytime you get it on the block.
To his credit though he has done some good work on the boards this season. Dez is right. You don't get to the line shooting turn around jump shots. I don't think that Rashard is mad that he isn't getting to the line on his shots. I think that he believes that the refs are letting people get away with bumping him off of the ball. He does seem to bumped a ton when he is trying to get position on the block. If anyone on this team deserves the right to vent it is Sweet Lew. He seems to have a legit locker room presence this year.
I don't think it's turnaround jumpers so much as the fact that when he drives to the basket he often pulls up a little short for a one-handed runner instead of crashing all the way to the rim. It works for him, but it also avoids contact. I don't think anybody will deny he's taken a big step forward with how much he is driving to the hoop this year.
Sweet Lew really doesn't get very many calls. You could say that for the whole team actually. Other teams and shuffle their feet, they can hook when making a move in the post, they can be out of position on a charge call...but it just seems that the refs call everything on the Sonics. The past few games I've been looking carefully at other teams and it's just crazy the amount of non-calls there are.
Lewis is clearly not complaining about a lack of calls on his jumper. He has been bullied while posting up and anytime he enters the paint this year. In fact, Sonics bigs have been called for fouls on their opponents on one play and Lewis has been fouled on the very next possession in the SAME way and the officials have been blind to it. That is where his complaint lies. Wilcox is also ignored on the block by the refs unless he is dunking the ball and someone yanks his arm. More than once this year I have watched teams holding Collison, Lewis and Wilcox down under the basket to prevent them from rebounding while the refs clean their nails.
