Yeah the title is rude, no need to dig at them like that. No need to panic, the Blazers just need another season or so to develop further and they're young.
And it's quite possible Houston profited from the same kind of illegal game-fixing, probable even, that some of the refs involved were officiating the game last night with Stern there to make sure they followed orders: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...exreferee_tim_donaghy_blows_whistle_on_n.html Ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy told the feds two officials fixed the outcome of a playoff series - and that refs were told not to eject star players from games for fear of hurting ticket sales. The bombshell allegations are in a court document filed Tuesday by Donaghy's lawyer that describes how NBA execs allegedly used referees to manipulate games. Donaghy has pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to betting on games he worked. According to the document, he told FBI agents, "League officials would tell referees they should withhold calling technical fouls on certain star players because doing so hurt ticket sales and television ratings." Donaghy claims he was told two refs who were "company men" acting in the interest of the NBA conspired to extend a playoff series in 2002 to a seventh game. The referees allegedly ignored flagrant fouls committed by one team and "made up fouls" against the other team, which led to two of its players fouling out. The team favored by the refs won that game and the next to win the series. Donaghy also claimed that a supervising referee told refs than an unidentified NBA executive did not want them to call technical fouls on star players or boot them from the game. Donaghy told the feds the league reprimanded a ref who disobeyed that edict in January 2000 by ejecting an unnamed star player from a game in the first quarter.
