The Timberwolves and Lakers are just about to go into overtime, and as a neutral follower, I am disgusted with the bias against the Wolves by the refs, particularly in the 4th quarter! :mad:

Phantom calls, obvious non-calls... It's so obvious!

Why can't the refs just call it fairly, and let the better team win?! :confused:

come on!

Nevertheless, the T'Wolves prevail. Gosh, I love them! wink

This seems to be the topic of discussion. When I went to bed very late last night/early this morning there were sports radio talk show callers angry at this. Before I turned it off the host said something on the order of, "If you believe there's a conspiracy then at least give me a plausible way that it was put into place--who came up with it and how did they get it to work?" I'm guessing no one had the answer to that.

No conspiracy, just the age-old NBA problem of the superstars getting the calls. Some shlub from Minnesota barely touched Kobe with 10 seconds left in regulation and gets called for a foul. "Ticky-tack" was the late, great Chick Hearn's term. The same happened when MJ was traveling every possession for the Bulls. The NBA must have the most elastic rules in sport.

I didn't see the NJ/MIL game last night but George Karl was just ripping the officials in his postgame interview and basically talked about the "elastic" rules. I'm sure he'll be fined momentarily.

I am pretty sure the Lakers-nation is thinking that there is a conspiracy against the Lakers team today!! They cannot believe that the "supposed" lowly Timberwolves, who have won't haven't won a playoff series in their franchise history, actually won a game on their home court. This is a different T-Wolves team, though. They are more than just Kevin Garnett. He has some help now. I stated yesterday, before the game, that if the T-Wolves won just one game in L.A., they would have a better than 90% chance of winning this series. Even those paid-off refs couldn't win the game for the Lakers!! eek! Did anyone see that mysterious foul by the T-Wolves' Wally Szczerbiak on the Lakers' Pargo as he was going for a layup. Szczerbiak didn't even touch Pargo or the ball. The replay even showed it, and the play-by-play announcers even mentioned it!! The refs were definitely a Lakers' lean!! I saw so many "phantom" calls!! The 4th quarter was all C&C Music Factory!! In other words, it was a "Things That Make You Say, HMMM!!" quarter! :confused: A song title taken from C&C's hit album from the early 90's!! I think all true objective NBA fans are on notice, and very observant of this series!!

[ April 25, 2003, 08:43 PM: Message edited by: SmoothRon ]

It was amusing to read a game recap on ESPN.com...there were at least four times in which the phrase "another questionable call" was used. wink

More Laker-philia from the WW-NBA-E.

Vince McMahon would've scripted the Laker comeback better.

Question: Have the Lakers fallen so far that they can't even win when they're getting every call in the book? Thank God for them that Stern gave them a 7-game opening series when it first looked like the Lakers would need it back at mid-season.

Yup, that Pargo guy on the Lakers is such a superstar compared to a schmoe like Wally Szczerbiak. wink

[ April 25, 2003, 08:59 PM: Message edited by: Charlie in the Trees ]

Yeah and Garnett didn't foul Kobe in the 4th Quarter and should have been fouled out! The Out-of-bounds over-rule in OT didn't help the Timberwolves either give me a f**king break! Plus the anouncers were so obviously biased! All you LAKER haters beware, they are still the team to beat!

Yeah, but Wally was dern near on the bench when they called him for fouling Pargo!

I think the NBA will turn their head to the officiating of this particular crew, one of which has a known knee injury and limps to get up and down the court. They'll let the Lakers shake their money maker for as long as they can but it looks like Stern is going to need a new bitch to bring him his money after KG and Wally dispose of the Clip....uhhh I mean Lakers.

Any truth to the rumors that David Stern is going to announce that the Lakers/T-Wolves series is best of 9 if Minnesota goes up 3-1???

wink :cool:

Theo & Charlie- You guys are right on the money on all accounts!!! It is so obvious what is going on in this series, that it is ridiculous!! eek! Is it a TV ratings thing or what? It seems to me that they are trying to get the largest television markets into the NBA Finals!! Sorry, David Stern it doesn't work like that!! Between him and Bud Selig(MLB), I think they have to be in a tie for the worst commissioner of a major professional sport.

Paul Tagliabue(NFL) and Gary Bettman(NHL) do a superb job as commissioners, by continually finding ways to improve the sports and make them more fan-friendly!! Like the NFL (where there has never been more parity), the NBA should want some new blood to advance far into the playoffs, to provide more exposure to new markets and regions, not the same team for 10 years straight!!

[ April 26, 2003, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: SmoothRon ]

Lakers-either you are wrong about LA still being the team to beat,or the conspiracy theory is more fact than fiction.NO WAY Lakers are the best team,they are seeded exactly where they deserve to be.There is also no way that they can win 3 road series without MUCHO help from the refs and the League.They will probably come back and beat the Wolves,you can bet the league is going to do everything it possibly can not to lose their major mass media market in the first round.I'd say getting to the conference finals is a major longshot,after game 2 fans are extremely wary of pro-Laker officiating.

Another repeat of the type of BS that went down in game 6 of the Finals last year,and I think the league could have a serious PR nightmare.I've actually read posts on other forums where pro-Laker fans expressed outrage at the blatant attempt by the refs to keep the Lakers in Game 2.Imo, the NBA has a bit of a dilemma.They'd really like to see the Lakers get to the Final,they hate to lose the LA market.However,the Lakers are just not good enough to get there without help,and like someone else said,they weren't even good enough to win game 2 WITH help. :cool: Everybody saw what happened in game 2-it was embarrassingly blatant.Now people are on their guard,and just watching for more shennanigans. George Karl further compounded the issue with his "cry wolf" news conference.His crying about phantom fouls and supposed injustice was pretty obviously refuted by the actual footage,but it drew attention to the egregious reality of what everyone actually witnessed in LA.It's a MAJOR issue everywhere and the Wolves won.Can you imagine the nightmare for the League when it happens again, and costs the Wolves the game? eek!

Guys keep the posts comming I am enjoying the jealousy!

There have been times in all the sports when the major markets were represented yet the ratings weren't great. Nowadays it's as much about popular players and matchups as anything. If I'm not mistaken, Lakers/Sixers 2 years ago had higher ratings than Lakers/Nets last year. The networks consider the Nets as part of the NY market for TV ratings purposes.

As for Gary Bettman being a great commissioner, ummmm, no. Check out some of the NHL discussions that talk about the TV ratings, games not being televised on ESPN but bounced to ESPN2, etc.

I think the Lakers got what can be termed a "home call." This is when all the questionable calls seem to be in favor of the home team. We notice them only if they fit the pattern--questionable calls that favor the visitors wouldn't be quite so noticeable because we aren't expecting them. This is in addition to the superstar rule Jordan exploited so effectively throughout his career and extends to all players who seem larger than the game itself: Shaq never gets called for the 3-second violation and Kobe, Iverson, Garnett, etc. never seem to travel. Some players are more equal than others, to paraphrase Orwell.


~Adam

On the topic of Laker favoritsm, can someone tell me why the Cleveland Cavs are at the salary cap with all rookies but Lakers have no prob paying Shaq, Kobe and others.

pls adv
Love
~
osufan

osufan- To answer your question, it goes right back to the way that David Stern conducts business!! He is not a good commissioner, by any means!! It took Mark Cuban(Dallas Mavericks owner) to highlight this!! Mark Cuban, almost more than anyone else, has brought attention to referee deficiencies, player salary caps, etc. There isn't a revenue-sharing program in place in the NBA, as there is in the NFL(thus the reason it is the most financially sports entity on the planet). Mark Cuban has brought these issues to the forefront, but David Stern wants no part of it.