I'm not talking about best. Stop making this about the "best team" in franchise history. I'm talking about the most talented roster. You guys keep pointing to teams that maybe won more, or played better, I'm talking about a roster that had the most overall talent. I don't think any other Blazer team had as much overall talent as the 1999-2000 team. That doesn't mean they were the best team, just the most talented team.
given how poorly overall this team defends I simply cannot consider them having the most overall "talent", defense is what wins in the playoffs as we don't IMO have that "talent" level
For some reason he clicked on a link titled, "1999-2000 team" and thought I was talking about our current team. Go figure...
No. Antonio Harvey kills it right there. Pippen and Smitty were no where near their prime. Sabonis, although very effective, was a shell of his former self. If only.... Detlef was done. Jermaine was in his infancy. That was a championship team though.
I understand what you are asking. I'd perhaps rephrase it as: the team with the players with the most talent, to consider each player at their peak rather than how good they were that particular year. Then yeah, that's a legendary roster.
You're telling the truth. LaMarcus and Matthews occasionally get too aggressive in ramming the post defender with their shoulder, and they usually pick up the offensive foul. But Shaq on the other hand, would ram a guy twice as hard as that, and get an "and 1". It was ridiculous. That Blazers team was the best in the NBA that year, no question. The Lakers little title is a joke. But I wouldn't say they are the best of all time, no. The Lakers and Celtics teams of the 80s get that honor.
I think if Donaghy hadn't been a ref in that series, the Blazers did beat the Lakers. This was a deep roster.
Shaq should've fouled out before halftime in almost every game he ever played. The guy had the biggest get out of foul trouble card ever with the exception of Jordan..Jordan was never allowed to get in trouble. Sheed was right! Sheed never forgave the refs for Shaq bias and it made him bitter after that Western finals. Shaq would put his palm on a defenders face and dunk a ball all the time
He flat out said in the 4th qtr is when the refs went to work to help the Lakers beat the Blazers. He said the Blazers where the better team and the league knew it going in. There is a very good article about it in his book "Personal Foul."
Here's some good reading: The 2002 series certainly wasn't the first or last time Bavetta weighed in on an important game. He also worked Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Trail Blazers. The Lakers were down by 13 at the start of the fourth quarter when Bavetta went to work. The Lakers outscored Portland 31–13 in the fourth quarter and went on to win the game and the series. It certainly didn't hurt the Lakers that they got to shoot 37 free throws compared to a paltry 16 for the Trail Blazers. To have a little fun at the expense of the worst troublemakers, the referees working the game would sometimes make a modest friendly wager amongst themselves: first ref to give one of the bad boys a technical foul wouldn't have to tip the ball boy that night. In the NBA, ball boys set up the referees' locker room and keep it stocked with food and beer for the postgame meal. We usually ran the kid ragged with a variety of personal requests and then slipped him a $20 bill. Technically, the winner of the bet won twice — he didn't have to pay the kid and he got to call a T on Mr. Foul-Mouthed Big-Shot Du Jour. After the opening tip, it was hilarious as the three of us immediately focused our full attention on the intended victim, waiting for something, anything, to justify a technical foul. If the guy so much as looked at one of us and mumbled, we rang him up. Later in the referees' locker room, we would down a couple of brews, eat some chicken wings, and laugh like hell. We had another variation of this gag simply referred to as the "first foul of the game" bet. While still in the locker room before tip-off, we would make a wager on which of us would call the game's first foul. That referee would either have to pay the ball boy or pick up the dinner tab for the other two referees. Sometimes, the ante would be $50 a guy. Like the technical foul bet, it was hilarious — only this time we were testing each other's nerves to see who had the guts to hold out the longest before calling a personal foul. There were occasions when we would hold back for two or three minutes — an eternity in an NBA game — before blowing the whistle. It didn't matter if bodies were flying all over the place; no fouls were called because no one wanted to lose the bet. We played this little game during the regular season and summer league. After a game, all three refs would gather around the VCR and watch a replay of the game. Early in the contest, the announcers would say, "Holy cow! They're really letting them play tonight!" If they only knew... During one particular summer game, Duke Callahan, Mark Wunderlich, and I made it to the three-minute mark in the first quarter without calling a foul. We were running up and down the court, laughing our asses off as the players got hammered with no whistles. The players were exhausted from the nonstop running when Callahan finally called the first foul because Mikki Moore of the New Jersey Nets literally tackled an opposing player right in front of him. Too bad for Callahan — he lost the bet. I became so good at this game that if an obvious foul was committed right in front of me, I would call a travel or a three-second violation instead. Those violations are not personal fouls, so I was still in the running to win the bet. The players would look at me with disbelief on their faces as if to say, "What the hell was that?" On star treatment: Excerpts From The Book The NBA Doesn't Want You To Read SEXPAND Relationships between NBA players and referees were generally all over the board — love, hate, and everything in-between. Some players, even very good ones, were targeted by referees and the league because they were too talented for their own good. Raja Bell, formerly of the Phoenix Suns and now a member of the Charlotte Bobcats, was one of those players. A defensive specialist throughout his career, Bell had a reputation for being a "star stopper." His defensive skills were so razor sharp that he could shut down a superstar, or at least make him work for his points. Kobe Bryant was often frustrated by Bell's tenacity on defense. Let's face it, no one completely shuts down a player of Kobe's caliber, but Bell could frustrate Kobe, take him out of his game, and interrupt his rhythm. You would think that the NBA would love a guy who plays such great defense. Think again! Star stoppers hurt the promotion of marquee players. Fans don't pay high prices to see players like Raja Bell — they pay to see superstars like Kobe Bryant score 40 points. Basketball purists like to see good defense, but the NBA wants the big names to score big points. If a player of Kobe's stature collides with the likes of Raja Bell, the call will almost always go for Kobe and against Bell. As part of our ongoing training and game preparation, NBA referees regularly receive game-action video tape from the league office. Over the years, I have reviewed many recorded hours of video involving Raja Bell. The footage I analyzed usually illustrated fouls being called against Bell, rarely for him. The message was subtle but clear — call fouls against the star stopper because he's hurting the game. If Kobe Bryant had two fouls in the first or second quarter and went to the bench, one referee would tell the other two, "Kobe's got two fouls. Let's make sure that if we call a foul on him, it's an obvious foul, because otherwise he's gonna go back to the bench. If he is involved in a play where a foul is called, give the foul to another player." Similarly, when games got physically rough, we would huddle up and agree to tighten the game up. So we started calling fouls on guys who didn't really matter — "ticky-tack" or "touch" fouls where one player just touched another but didn't really impede his progress. Under regular circumstances these wouldn't be fouls, but after a skirmish we wanted to regain control. We would never call these types of fouls on superstars, just on the average players who didn't have star status. It was important to keep the stars on the floor. Allen Iverson provides a good example of a player who generated strong reaction, both positive and negative, within the corps of NBA referees. For instance, veteran referee Steve Javie hated Allen Iverson and was loathe [sic] to give him a favorable call. If Javie was on the court when Iverson was playing, I would always bet on the other team to win or at least cover the spread. No matter how many times Iverson hit the floor, he rarely saw the foul line. By contrast, referee Joe Crawford had a grandson who idolized Iverson. I once saw Crawford bring the boy out of the stands and onto the floor during warm-ups to meet the superstar. Iverson and Crawford's grandson were standing there, shaking hands, smiling, talking about all kinds of things. If Joe Crawford was on the court, I was pretty sure Iverson's team would win or at least cover the spread. Madison Square Garden was the place to be for a marquee matchup between the Miami Heat and New York Knicks. I worked the game with Derrick Stafford and Gary Zielinski, knowing that the Knicks were a sure bet to get favorable treatment that night. Derrick Stafford had a close relationship with Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, and he despised Heat coach Pat Riley. I picked the Knicks without batting an eye and settled in for a roller-coaster ride on the court. During pregame warm-ups, Shaquille O'Neal approached Stafford and asked him to let some air out of the ball. "Is this the game ball?" O'Neal asked. "It's too hard. C'mon, D, let a little air out of it." Stafford then summoned one of the ball boys, asked for an air needle, and let some air out of the ball, getting a big wink and a smile from O'Neal.
Not surprising why most people I talk to about basketball love college and despise pro ball. Rigged games makes for a lack of motivation and sloppy boring play. Oft times even this year ive watched refs suck the life out of our team with their shitty calls. Its like the players know exactly what refs are doing and realize they are going to lose no matter what a d completely check out mentally.
