Shoog, I agree with you on most things - but not this one. First of all, there doesn't have to be a conspiracy for bias to exist.
Part of the Celtics re-building plan included tanking games to improve their draft for a couple of seasons. That was widely accepted even before Ryan Gomes' infamous comment to the media. Those two drafts are what allowed the Celtics to acquire Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. It was absolute horse , and everyone knew it.
In order for the Gasol trade to work, the Lakers had to "sign and trade" Aaron McKie, sending him to Memphis as part of the deal. In order for that to be legit, the league had to pretend that it believed Memphis really had the intention of letting McKie play for them. The story was that he would be a "player coach" with Memphis. It was absolute horse , and everyone knew it.
As for the officiating? The Pistons won in 04 because they deserved it - but they had a much harder time getting past the Pacers and the Nets than they should - in no small part due to the officiating. The year before that, the Pistons got totally screwed by the refs in games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Finals. (Not to mention almost getting Game 6 of the semi-finals taken away from them.)
Last season, the Celtics might not have even made it to the finals, if not for some selective zebra vision. And the same could be said for the Lakers vs. Utah in the Western Conference semis. I'm no big Jazz fan, but I thought the refs totally jobbed them out of an opportunity to advance. In both of those series, one team could do no wrong. That may not point to a conspiracy, but it was sure as biased.
I don't even want to talk about the Spurs '06 semi-finals series against the Mavericks. But I will say that as bad as that was, the Dallas vs. Miami finals was probably worse. I'm not saying conspiracy. But bias? Damn betcha.
This year, I'm looking at some of the calls that went against the Rockets and having a hard time watching any more NBA games. I'm sick of watching the Lakers' bigs camp in the paint, and hack guys across the arms when they drive, and no whistles. I'm sick of watching Odom and Bynum "flash out" and belly-bump opposing guards damn near to the mid-court line. (And Varejao/Ilgauskas doing the same thing for Cleveland.)
And why did the league rescind Kobe's 6th technical foul? As rough as that series, and that game had been, they had every reason to T him up for the head butt. You know the answer. It got rescinded because it's Kobe. If that's not bias, what would it take?
Don't just dismiss every comment as conspiracy theory. I'm not saying that there is a wide spread conspiracy. But I don't believe that all the players and teams are being measured by the same yardstick. That's bias. And sometimes it only takes a teeny bit of that to tip a game or a series - intentional or not.
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. If the NBA is trying to drive fans away from the idea that there isn't a "conspiracy" or big market/superstar bias, they're not helping themselves out whatsoever.
