First thing that came to my mind. The Dallas game. Gets Nurk into foul trouble so he gets forced out early. Zack got like 5 fouls in like what... 18 minutes on the floor. But look at Zach's numbers, he was very effective. So what happens, you give the post guys a lot of unwarranted fouls. Less rim protection and defense, forces the Blazers to work harder and Dame gets tired and frustrated. The Blazers offense flows a certain way, so if Nurk and Collins are neutralized, and the other players work rate is really high...you got to expect at some point they are going to get tired or go cold. In fact, we were on that streak that if we didn't lead going into the third quarter we didn't win. Control the flow of the game and minimize our chances. Then Dame has to come back in and play hero ball, tries to draw a couple of fouls that result no calls.... (that were later proven to be wrong.) But you've still got the other players missing the shots, so it's looks like we beat ourselves. Think about it, even if the goal isn't to cause a loss, you still are able to affect the overall outcome by a few bogus calls. With a team like the Blazers that don't have a lot of superstars, this can't be that difficult. I've been thinking about this a bit. Does it make any sense?
Not surprised. Foster should have went down long ago. He obviously does the things Tim was talking about. Hate the guy. Every time I see he is reffing I shake my head and know it's probably a loss
But look at Bavetta's track record when he was an official. And now look at Foster's. If there's a guy the NBA wants to control the outcome of a playoff series, he's it. Otherwise, why would a guy with such a terrible reputation be in the league?
Exactly. I was thinking the same thing. It would be interesting to know exactly which calls he made during that game...and which were the other refs. If investigated, such a pattern could likely be found. It is no coincidence that most every time he refs we lose.
I firmly believe that at the very minimum, between 2000 and 2003, refs deciding the outcomes of games was rampant, with a wink-wink from the NBA.
Yeah it's a shame, Blazers would have played the Pacers in the Finals...a cakewalk. But, that cakewalk was put in place for Phil Jackson and the Lakers.
The ultimate conspiracy theory would be the NBA allowing and/or encouraging game fixing, so as to boost league profitability by having the big market teams win, and double dipping in the shadows by being one of the groups making hundreds of millions betting on rigged outcomes.
Yes, the Blazers missed a shit ton of shots in the 2000 loss. But that entire series was rigged HARD against us. Watch the games. There never should have even been a Game 7. And rewatch the final game itself. The refs were tilting the court against us before, and during that stretch of missed shots. They created and nurtured the environment for that to happen. Then the Kings got screwed as bad or worse two years later. That's when the whole world finally started calling foul, the whole world was talking about the NBA in the same breath as the WWF, and the league had to improve it's image. Yes. I'm bitter.
Conspiracy theory time: Perhaps Tim was fixing games for the mob, but Ken and Scott were fixing games for Stern.
