<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Though it never seemed to show in Jerry Sloan's game face, NBA referees were the Jazz's best friends for decades. Karl Malone led the NBA in free-throw attempts seven times, and Adrian Dantley once before him, too. Opposing coaches routinely grumbled about the treatment they received in the Delta Center, and Malone and John Stockton even developed overhyped reputations for "dirty," but unpenalized, play. Things are a little different these days. The Jazz don't have a player ranking among the NBA's top 30 in free throws anymore. But for the second straight season, Utah will run away with the league lead in fouls. It's not the numbers that bother the Jazz, though. It's the annoying belief that in the gray areas of NBA officiating, where the line between acceptable contact and punishable collisions grows fishing-line thin, judgments that once fell Stockton and Malone's way now come down in the opposite direction. Winners, in other words, get the benefit of the doubt - and most of the free throws, too. "That's the way life is," Sloan said. "Miss America gets all the good dates." A foul called on Raja Bell with 2.3 seconds remaining in Saturday's 96-95 loss to Washington was only the latest example, the Jazz believe. Bell, trying to keep Gilbert Arenas away from the basket as he drove the lane, swatted the ball out of his hands. Referee Joe Forte put Arenas on the line for the game-winning free throws. "I can't question the ref, he must have made the right call," Bell said after fouling out on the play. "I thought I made a good play." </div> Source
