Is There a Conspiracy With NBA Refs?

The answer is partly yes and partly no.

When I lived in The Dalles (2000 or 2001) I was up late one night listening to ESPN radio at 2-4AM. They were interviewing Bernie Fryer and he had some interesting things to say when asked about whether or not certain teams or players got preferential treatment.

He stated that the officials had full permission (but never ordered to) to give preferential treatment to certain players or teams. They refs were told that the NBA was not about "fairness" or "wins & losses", but about "marketing". The better the league is marketed, the more money it makes for everyone- refs included. So if Jordan takes steps a lot and Shaq pushed people out of the way going for offensive rebounds and it was never called, it was good for all concerned. If those types of things help a team win more games, that's an unintended outcome of such officiating. The point was that when certain players got as much floor time as they wanted, or certain teams did better than others... it's just marketing the league. But he made it clear they were just as free to call the game straight up if they chose to.

In fact, he shared a joke in that at the end of the annual meeting with the league and it's officials, one of the officials at the very end is to stand and ask if they can start calling pushing fouls on Shaq (or some other player). The NBA official always smiled and stated, "I'll get back to you in that one". With that, everyone shared a laugh and the meetings ended.

So Dirk, as we saw last night, gets some calls others won't. It's marketing. If it cost us the game, then that's the way it goes.

Or at least that's the NBA's line.

 

when a player like dirk just flails into the lane and throws his hands up and the ball goes flying, i would love for the refs to just eat their whistles as if to tell him "you just threw the ball away for no reason you fucking moron" and then maybe he would stop doing it.

what really burns is that roy used to be our guy that got those bullshit calls, every drive he would yell "hey!" and they would call the foul...now not so much.

 

If we lose this series, why don't we just give up on the Blazers EVER winning anything significant...it's not going to happen. This kind of shit didn't occur in 1977....

 

if we lose this series, it wouldnt be the first time a #3 beat a #6.

 

Life isn't always fair. We're good enough to beat the Mavericks above the margin of cheating. If that's what we have to do, then so be it. Fuck the Mavs, fuck the refs, fuck Stern and fuck the NBA. We'll win Game 2.

 

How true.

 

I think you're right. I think all this started with Bird & Magic and then MJ & Shaq.

 

Considering how lopsided the officiating was, and the fact that we really did not play that well... and we still almost won... I feel pretty good about our chances.

 

And I also agree with this. Otherwise, San Antonio would have never won a world title. We just have to be that much better. I take it as a granted the refs are going to give certain teams 10-14 points per game they otherwise don't deserve. We just have to be that much better. Granted, it's a hill to climb, but one we can climb. Also, it makes victory all that much sweeter.

 

Yes!

 

Imagine if Stern ran the NBA in 1977? The Sixers had ALL the star power: Dr. J, George McGinnis, Lloyd Free, Doug Collins, Daryl Dawkins, Henry Bibby. They were the team that the NBA marketed around (in the prehistorical ways of marketing back then).... and the Blazers had no one outside of Bill Walton, and he was only famous for his time at UCLA. In today's NBA, the refs would have totally jobbed the Blazers in a Game 5 in Portland, and then the Sixers would have closed out in Game 6 on the Spectrum home court. Lucas would have fouled out most games going against McGinnis and Dawkins, since they would have gotten the superstar calls. Dr. J would have lived on the foul line. Isn't that sad? The outcome of that series would have been completely different in today's NBA, not because of the abilities of the teams on the court, but the politics of marketing the league.

 

Depressing, isn't it? The NBA is bullshit. Time to focus on CFB and the NFL.

 

Come on Denny, you don't need statisticians to see what's right in front of your face.

 

I submit that the people who use such statistics -- book makers -- are well aware of the metrics of what is going on, and they, well, book it.

 

Nothing sabermetrical(I think I just made that up) about the Blazers/Mavs game. The FT disparity doesn't match the points in the paint, aka the team that was more aggressive.

 

I guess my thinking is more along the lines of, the games aren't "fixed" per se, but there are surely statistical metrics that show the favoritism toward certain players in certain ways, and therefore those things are factored in. But, I'm not a statistician, I'm not a book maker, and I don't even gamble on sports, so really I can't say much I guess.