Stern to the rescue

[Walton Buys Off Me]

With the Kobe-Lebron dream matchup in jeopardy because of a waterboy named Brooks, Commissioner Stern has called one in tonight.

Sorry Adelman.

Rockets with 5 fouls in the first 5 minutes. Hilarious. :rollin

I know there is a small outlaw group that still believes in the flat Earth theory but are there basketball fans that still believe the NBA isn't rigged?

[Hemotivo]

:reading

[mytespurs]

Rigged? losing is one thing but by 40 points???!!!!

[Cant_Be_Faded]

I'd say Rondo's phantom 3 pointer that hit the rim was equally dubious.

[Spursfan092120]

I'd say Rondo's phantom 3 pointer that hit the rim was equally dubious.
Even more so. I didn't care who won that series before...now, I hope Orlando takes it. That was some serious crap. Orlando had the lead before that. After that horrible call, Boston took the lead and never looked back. Orlando would have had the lead and the ball.

[NFGIII]

Watching the game and all of the replays I still don't see how the refs could have overturned the call. I did see that the ball changed its path but not that significantly to make me think that the rim had anything to do with it. I thougnt that the ball was slowing down/running out of enertia when it touched the net and then changed its path of flight(so to see). I always thought that in order to change a call the evidence must be conclusive. In this case it wasn't or for some highly skeptical. Yes, many a Celtic fan will argue that since the path of the ball was changed then it had to touch the rim because the net wouldn't have that effect on it. That call was debatable to say the least. I just didn't think the replays were that conclusive inorder to change the call.

But that call didn't lose the game for the Magic. As I watched the game they lost their focus and were jacking up 3's with plenty of time on the shotclock. In other words they became undisciplined and I attribute that to Rafer Alston, SVG and the youth of their team. An experienced PG would have run the 4th Q differently than what I saw IMHO. Imagine TP running the Spurs like that. Pop would have skinned him alive.

Clock management, poor shot selection and loss of focus in the 4th Q contributed to the Magic's downfall last night.

[Fabbs]

With the Kobe-Lebron dream matchup in jeopardy because of a waterboy named Brooks, Commissioner Stern has called one in tonight.

Sorry Adelman.

Rockets with 5 fouls in the first 5 minutes. Hilarious. :rollin

I know there is a small outlaw group that still believes in the flat Earth theory but are there basketball fans that still believe the NBA isn't rigged?


Rigged? losing is one thing but by 40 points???!!!!

Tuned in during the third quarter. While i agree it is hard to put a 40 point loss on the Sternys, what did come down that 1st 16 minutes? 7-1 foul calls favoring the flamers, with 4 of them favoring Gashol and further eliminating the Houston Center position. After Houston jumped out to a nice early lead.

After 16 minutes the Flamers had only one call against them?
Walton and others what did come down?
I know its pointless asking Brownozing Kobe Club Sniffers.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

The game did turn ugly soon after Houston's few remaining bigs got into early foul trouble...'tis true, and the calls were pretty weak.

[Obstructed_View]

That said, the Rockets were awful. They could barely pass to each other in the first 20 minutes of the game and jacked up a lot of contested long jumpers.

[EricB]

You could see it coming a hundred miles away.


The NBA becomes less appealing every day after crap like this.

[td4mvp21]

40 point blowout...I'm not sure how the league could have orchestrated that. As far as the bigs getting in foul trouble, they are undersized, so what do you expect?

[Fabbs]

40 point blowout...I'm not sure how the league could have orchestrated that. As far as the bigs getting in foul trouble, they are undersized, so what do you expect?
Same "undersized" bigs who had Houston up 30 and cruised to an easy win in Gm 4.

No one here is suggesting the Lakers did not kick Houstons arse in the 3rd and 4th qtrs. The question is, how much of a comfy cushion was provided in the 1st 16 minutes, including the 5-0 calls start of the game which erased the early Houston lead and momentum.

[Walton Buys Off Me]

40 points is the end result. The Rockets came out of the gate and had an early lead in the first half of the opening quarter. 23-15.

Then the refs decided that wasn't going to happen and sent Chuck Hayes and Ron Artest to the bench. Laker domination ensued.

Houston had no chance of winning that game. Stern would have shut the power off at Staples if they came close.

[TDomination]

With the Kobe-Lebron dream matchup in jeopardy because of a waterboy named Brooks, Commissioner Stern has called one in tonight.

Sorry Adelman.

Rockets with 5 fouls in the first 5 minutes. Hilarious. :rollin

I know there is a small outlaw group that still believes in the flat Earth theory but are there basketball fans that still believe the NBA isn't rigged?

If NBA fans truly believed that the NBA was rigged, i'm sure that the majority of them would bail.

[superbigtime]

If NBA fans truly believed that the NBA was rigged, i'm sure that the majority of them would bail.

It may not be rigged in October, but there is an undeniable bias toward the large market teams unless they are too awful of a team, which would expose the crookedness of the league (like the Knicks). I think there is an agenda which becomes established as the season rolls along. NBA fans can't help but watch their team and hope that somehow ref bias will be overcome by heroic players. At least that's my take.

[The Truth #6]

The big theory is that Stern is pulling all the puppet strings. A more likely theory is that he has no control over his refs. The famous refs are always the arrogant assholes who love to do things their way. I'm sure Stern is happy often times how it works out but I think each individual ref has their own story. Most are probably hard working, however once a ref becomes known it's always because he sucks and at that point he should be in search of a new job. Refs should be anonymous. We shouldn't have to know their names.

[SouthTexasRancher]

With the Kobe-Lebron dream matchup in jeopardy because of a waterboy named Brooks, Commissioner Stern has called one in tonight.

Sorry Adelman.

Rockets with 5 fouls in the first 5 minutes. Hilarious. :rollin

I know there is a small outlaw group that still believes in the flat Earth theory but are there basketball fans that still believe the NBA isn't rigged?


That still left them 43 more minutes to get over it. The Sprockets jusy got their ass handed to them last night by the LaLa Land Girlieboyz Fakers...Pathetic!!!

But, yeah, David 'Hitler' Stern will make sure he gets King Lebron and Rapist Kobe in the Finals.

[temujin]

With the Kobe-Lebron dream matchup in jeopardy because of a waterboy named Brooks, Commissioner Stern has called one in tonight.

Sorry Adelman.

Rockets with 5 fouls in the first 5 minutes. Hilarious. :rollin

I know there is a small outlaw group that still believes in the flat Earth theory but are there basketball fans that still believe the NBA isn't rigged?

Yes, and that's why the circus goes on.