Check this out. http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2009/04/29/nba_mia_atl_gm5_hardfouls.nba/ Dwyane Wade called for a flagrant foul, when he went straight up with his arm, and his hand was about an inch away from the ball. Yet Rajon Rondo smacking Miller in the face is just a regular old personal foul. The NBA's officiating is such a joke.
It's actually very simple: 1. Refs under pressure because of their blatant homerism towards Wade since the 2006 Finals. 2. Refs under pressure to call a flagrant because of the missed calls against Howard and Rondo. 3. Refs react instintively and spontaneously after considering 1 and 2. 4. Wade called for flagrant foul that shouldn't have been called. Also, wouldn't this be in the general NBA section? Or the Heat/Hawks forum?
My question is, aren't they allowed to look at a replay? Not really, considering that anything relating to everything is posted in the Blazer dome. We can do the same here.
They are. But again, the key word is pressure. They called the flagrant, and let's say they then decided to check out the replay. What are the chances of them admitting to a missed call, on the Hawks' home floor, and favor a guy whom they have been know to favor for years? Not high, even if they know they were wrong. Basically, the foul should not have been called in the first place, but the incompetent, under pressure refs called it and would never have had the courage to change it, even if they admitted to themselves that it was the wrong call.
More and more it seems to me that the NBA is a little big rigged. By that I mean certain teams get a few more favourable calls than others, and that they get calls which if it were the same situation with a different team, the call would not be made. I guess this doesn't apply to the Wade foul on Evans, but moreso Rondo on Miller.