Well I cannot stand this.

[spursfan09]

Ah the conspiracy things goes out the window, because it is pretty obvious if they never wanted the Spurs in the finals they never would of let them go 4 times. It is just a game, but I know that the league favors teams over others. Even Stern said his dream was a celtics and lakers final. And thats the commissioner for you-talk about conflict of interest. Anyways spurs are not "loved", but that makes what they have accomplished even more special.

[Mr. Body]

Ah the conspiracy things goes out the window, because it is pretty obvious if they never wanted the Spurs in the finals they never would of let them go 4 times. It is just a game, but I know that the league favors teams over others. Even Stern said his dream was a celtics and lakers final. And thats the commissioner for you-talk about conflict of interest. Anyways spurs are not "loved", but that makes what they have accomplished even more special.

There's a lot of room between a league manipulating results continuously and everywhere and a league pushing things recently or every now and then. Chicago getting the #1 looks less like a fluke.

[ChumpDumper]

So why are all the conspiracy nuts still watching?

[Mr. Body]

So why are all the conspiracy nuts still watching?

Are they?

[jag]

Here's a conspiracy theory for you:

Chicago Bulls, knowing they got completely ed by the Pau trade, since they were hot and heavy after him at least since the summer, were threatening to blow the doors off the collusion between West/Memphis/Los Angeles.

So, with barely a 2% chance of winning the draft lottery, the league promised them the first pick in the draft to stay silent. Which they got.

So they got the first pick in the draft because they were gonna tell everyone that it wasn't fair?

Didn't Pop do the same thing?

[cobbler]

So why are all the conspiracy nuts still watching?

I have asked that sooooo many times and yet never get an answer. Makes em look pretty ignorant IMO.

[Ghost Writer]

If you naive homers are convinced that everything was on the up and up as the Celtics and Lakers conveniently upgraded their teams from mediocre to leading contenders in one year and then they both make it to the Finals despite many pundits crying conspiracy since the Gasol trade, then I got a bridge for sale to you in Brooklyn.


Wake the fvck up.


Have you seen the Finals' ratings over the past 5 years?


Did you notice an official got busted for fixing games and admitted that other erfs and players were in on it?


Did you happen to see the non-calls against the Spurs in the Lakers series or see what R. Wallace was b1tching about the Pistons/Celtics travesty?


It's a business, people.



Stop being do Popd@mn foolish.


Perfect example:

My brother-in-law texted me today to tell me how excited he was for the Celtics and tell me "sorry about your Spurs." This is a guy that never watched the NBA. I texted him back that the Celts/Lakers was predetermined. He replied, "Well, it brought me back to the NBA."

Score one for Stern.

[Mr. Body]

So they got the first pick in the draft because they were gonna tell everyone that it wasn't fair?

Didn't Pop do the same thing?

If the Spurs get a route to Mike Miller in the offseason, then I'll know something's up.

[ChumpDumper]

So if it's fixed, why should you or I or any spurfan care about what happens now.

If it's a conspiracy, the Spurs will never win anything again.

Game over.

[Ghost Writer]

Well, as obvious as this year was, the NBA can't script it all the time.

But you knew d@mn well there was no way we were seeing DET/SAS II this year.

[Mr. Body]

I'm kind of with GW. There's no proof of anything.

But... in a world where the Bush administration can obviously lie its way into a war and run slipshod over the Cons ution, while never getting pulled onto the carpet for it, especially by the (corporate owned) media, back-room deals become much easier to believe. I'm not saying David Stern is a master of baldfaced dealing like Cheney, but it's not beyond the realm of imagination. That's the problem.

When Chicago got the #1 I went fairly quickly from 'that should make Stern very happy' to 'that's really kind of weird, they had no chance at all...'

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

There have been two big jokes related to the NBA's glamor teams this post-season...

* KG pushes a ref and gets away with it

* Joey Crawford had no business being near any of our WCF games

I called in and canceled my league pass this week, told them it wasn't worth it any more because the refereeing is a joke and the league doesn't want to market anyone outside of LA, Boston, and Lebron. As a basketball fan I'm tired of having the league and its affiliates (ABC, ESPN, TNT) try to tell me who I should watch and root for.

that, I'm a basketball fan and a purist of the game, and the league has lost my interest.

I'll still watch the Spurs play when they're on the networks but Stern and co. have done a good job convincing me to find better things to do with my time and money than watch NBA hoops.

[Mr. Body]

Well, as obvious as this year was, the NBA can't script it all the time.

But you knew d@mn well there was no way we were seeing DET/SAS II this year.

Yeah, I'm pretty much here. It's stupid to think the league can or would put their hands in at all times -- clearly they haven't, as the Spurs' success can attest. It's a strawman to suggestion this is what people are saying.

But it is not outside the realm of possibility there were very much shenanigans involved here. Not saying there were. But those accountants claiming extreme secrecy and honor over the results of the draft and stuff like that... accountants of the same brand as Arthur Anderson, who basically lied like dogs in collusion with Enron for so many years?

Yeah right.

[ChumpDumper]

Well I seriously don't understand why you guys waste your time then.

[cobbler]

Well, as obvious as this year was, the NBA can't script it all the time.

But you knew d@mn well there was no way we were seeing DET/SAS II this year.

Not with the way you PLAYED!!! Your 100% correct!

[jag]

I really didn't think there were this many conspiracy theorists here...i kinda thought we were better than that.

[cobbler]

There have been two big jokes related to the NBA's glamor teams this post-season...

* KG pushes a ref and gets away with it

* Joey Crawford had no business being near any of our WCF games

I called in and canceled my league pass this week, told them it wasn't worth it any more because the refereeing is a joke and the league doesn't want to market anyone outside of LA, Boston, and Lebron. As a basketball fan I'm tired of having the league and its affiliates (ABC, ESPN, TNT) try to tell me who I should watch and root for.

that, I'm a basketball fan and a purist of the game, and the league has lost my interest.

I'll still watch the Spurs play when they're on the networks but Stern and co. have done a good job convincing me to find better things to do with my time and money than watch NBA hoops.

Buh Bye! Dont let the door hit you....

[cobbler]

I really didn't think there were this many conspiracy theorists here...i kinda thought we were better than that.

The majority of you are better than that.

It's the few who whine the loudest that get heard. It really gets old too.

[jag]

There's just no way a small-market team like the Spurs win 4 les in 9 years in a "fixed" NBA system. So during this 10 year period they are just now starting to consider the best financial option??? Why not do this after the first Spurs' le?

We were outplayed and out-hustled by the Lakers the entire series and now the league is fixed? But if we would have pulled out that win in game 1....the league wouldn't have been fixed?

This is ridiculous.

[cobbler]

There's just no way a small-market team like the Spurs win 4 les in 9 years in a "fixed" NBA system. So during this 10 year period they are just now starting to consider the best financial option??? Why not do this after the first Spurs' le?

We were outplayed and out-hustled by the Lakers the entire series and now the league is fixed? But if we would have pulled out that win in game 1....the league wouldn't have been fixed?

This is ridiculous.

And the suns fans said the same last yeart about the spurs victory. Its BS and a losers way out to blame everyone but themselves for a loss. Nothing more. Real men dont us EXCUSES.

Your observations are spot on.

[Anti.Hero]

Are they?

no.

[theFrog]

Just because the league has an interest in the Lakers does not mean there was anything wrong done.

1) there were missed calls on both sides, fisher's shot hit the rim before he "fouled" barry.

2) Kobe had 11 free throws the ENTIRE series. He had 38 attempts in a four game series vs. the Nuggets and even more vs the Jazz. the free throw differential was minimal at best. So I dont know where Spurs fans get off saying the officials had anything to do with it

3) the Lakers won in FIVE games, not like this was a series pushed to the brink or even a close series

4) Heaven forbid the league schedule games every 2 days so that there is a playoff game on every night. It's not like the league schedules games back to back nights during the regular season. Heaven forbid there be content neutral scheduling, and not a schedule that directly and explicitly favors the Spurs. If the Spurs wanted rest they should have finished off the Hornets and the Suns earlier.

5) The Grizzles wanted to retool and they got the biggest expiring contract they could getand Kwame had a huge one. I dont think they could have seen another realistic package offered that had a bigger expiring contract.

[sedale threatt]

Frog, it's good to see another intelligent Spurs fan on this board. The conspiracy talk is embarrassing. I'm still waiting to hear what was in it for Memphis--did they make the trade because their former employee Jerry West told them it was a good deal? Oh, wait, David Stern was in on it too. How did it go down? Everyone talks about this collusion/conspiracy like it's a fact, but none of these geniuses even have a theory about how it would have worked.

The fact is that the west got tougher and the Spurs didn't.

[Budkin]

Pretty good rant Brutalis... I think this league has always had sketchy going on under it's glitzy veneer, kind of like a David Lynch movie. The thing that's making me start to lose interest in the NBA as a whole is the situation with the refs... they all need to be ing fired and a whole new crew needs to replace them who are trained in an entirely different way.

The fact that so much is a ing judgment call gives them way too much power to influence outcomes. I don't give a if instant replay slows down the game, it needs to be used more. A rule is a ing rule, and if you don't abide by it then what is the point of having it? For example, the foul at the end of game 4. That right there should have been reviewed, even if it took 20 minutes, and then play should have continued. Apologizing the next evening is totally ing pointless and just rubs salt in the wound of the team that got screwed.

Ok, I realize I'm starting my own rant, but the NBA really needs to do something if they want fans to come back. And I'm sorry but this manufactured nostalgia of a Lakers vs. Celtics Finals isn't going to cut it.

[ATXSPUR]

Pathetic rant.

The two best teams are in the Finals and both got their legitimately. Say what you want about lopsided trades but they DO happen in the NBA and neither the Celtics or the Lakers are the only teams to benefit from such. If Stern wanted the Celtics to be relevant so badly why the did he let them suck for the past two decades? There are so many holes in your idiotic rant I don't know where to begin. Your ing piece of lone star city has won 4 of the last 9 championships and has produced some of the worst rated NBA Finals EVER. There is no conspiracy to keep small market teams out of the Finals.

The bottomline is the Spurs, Jazz, and Nuggets lost fair and square to a better Laker team. If it makes you feel better to cry CONSPIRACY go ahead, but deep down you know your team just wasn't good enough.

Why don't you get off another team's forum and go make wedding arrangements with your boyfriend. I hear they're letting you guys do that over there now.