I was watching the Thunder/Heat game a few days ago, not caring who won as I like neither team. In the 4th quarter the refs totally bought 4 complete flops by the Heat and then failed to call two intentional fouls against the Heat and sealed the Thunder's doom in the game. Any one of those 6 calls against the Thunder would most likely given them the win. I don't know what the betting line was but all 6 calls/non calls were grossly incompetent. Nice to know the more things change, the more they stay the same.
This is why, IMO, the NBA's star is fading somewhat (at least for me). Don't get me wrong - it's a huge enterprise, makes a lot of cash, and I enjoy watching. But the officiating has become such a joke, that I've starting to buy into the "NBA is rigged, just like the WWF." I don't truly believe it's rigged to that level, but there is too much influence on the game by forces outside of the 24 players that potentially play in each game. In the last 10-15 years, my attachment to the Blazers has slowly decreased each year. All of my other sports teams - my fandom has not wavered, even during some terrible seasons. But with the Blazers, I enjoy them when they have a potential star player, a young player getting attention and being marketed with some solid sponsorships. Even better when they're a competetive team. It's already hard enough to be the championship in any sport. But then, even if the Blazers were that good, would they get past the zebras? I dunno. So, I love the Blazers. I enjoy watching some of these young, exciting players we have. I'm enjoying us hovering at a respectable .500 (at the moment, anyway). But it's hard for me to really get into the NBA like I used to, and I have no doubt it's in large part due to the officiating.
This is why it's actually better to be a fan of a middle of the pack team. It sucks to get up there and get worked by the refs, and you know that is what would happen if the Blazers ever became contenders, it happened to us the last few times we were contenders.
Bottom Line: The NBA needs to step into the 21st century. There needs to be an additional referee on the sideline, in front of a monitor, making sure the correct calls are made and conversing with the on-court referees about any questionable calls. This will put the ownest on the NBA, and relieve the officials of the excuse "I didn't see it."
Totally agreed. 100%. I still have no idea when the refs can or cannot review plays, as they seem to be very inconsistent (except on buzzer-beating shots).
Funny thing about that game, the Thunder shot 19 more FT's then the Heat. While watching that game the refs definitely favored the thunder through the first three quarters then started to favor the heat in the last quarter. I didn't finish the game stop watching with about 4 minutes left but i agree with everything about the "superstar" era being BS. Its for fairweather fans who really don't care or know that much about bball and not about the fans that follow there teams for years and years. It has taken a lot of "team" out of the game and is imo ruining the sport. I'll never stop watching the Blazers but it gets harder and harder to follow the rest of the league becasue of this. If it wasn't for fantasy basketball I probably wouldn't watch any other teams play.
The NBA pimped Jordan so hard, and rode his tails to making the NBA so globalized, it really has become all about the superstar. Every sport has a few amazing, dominant stars, but the NBA is known for pushing its' stars on us more than any other league.
I refuse to watch an NBA game that doesn't include the Blazers. The league is a joke on the whole. Pretty obvious Stern is only worried about elevating and marketing players and teams he thinks will make the most money, and not about marketing a competitive league such as the NFL.
Agreed, the NFL is more competitive. And it's mainly because of non-gauranteed contracts. Watch how the level of play would change when the players are playing for their livelyhoods. Till the NBA implements non-gauranteed contracts, we'll still see NBA players mailing it in on a regular basis.
Pretty funny you say "refuse" because it made me realize I don't even consider the possibility of watching other games. It's like "why would I do that?". I could give a crap about LBJ or KD or CP3 or whoever the stars are now. I've only watched Blazer games for the last couple years and lately I don't even do that in relation to the NBA, only for pure basketballs sake to watch my boys play some bball. But even then I'd rather just go to the gym and play basketball because you can't even get pure basketball from the NBA anymore. Yeah the NFL and MLB have their faults but it's pretty obvious they're better companies with a better product.
Shorter seasons, fewer teams in the playoffs, the removal of divisions (but keeping conferences), a balanced schedule... all could help too. I'd also recommend 6 fewer teams, but would be afraid Portland would be contracted. There are about six teams' worth of players in this league that wouldn't have made a squad in the late 80's (and about 4 of them play for us!)
I used to love watching Jordan and Reggie Miller and the Knicks (to see them lose). I can't stand watching other games at this point. They ruined the game. Football >>>>>>>> NBA
BS. We lost in 90, 91, 92, 99, and 00 because we choked and got outplayed. Refs had little to do with it.
Why would the NBA refs prefer Miami to OKC? It seems that the Thunder are a total media darling, and they have one of the top two players in the game. I think that the refs blow calls all the time, but I don't think they're biased based on team popularity (although they might be biased against rookies, I will admit). Ed O.
