Hello. I am the perfect ref. I am the canonical proportion of he/she who controls/ manages the NBA games. It is also my job to deliver on the expectations of David Stern and other league officials. Moreover, I am paid to protect certain players and teams.
For example, when the upstart New Orleans Hornets come out at halftime playing stifling defense and making shots, and pulling within 5 of the stalwart Spurs at the 10:07 mark, I feel the need to call an offensive, if ridiculous, foul on Chris Paul, who incidentally, was taking over an NBA game without being named Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, or Tim Duncan. So, over the next 1:23 of game time, I make sure to call another foul on Chris, and three on David West, who although not playing his best game, has started the third quarter hot and might take over the game. Just for good measure, I’ll call a technical foul on West too. Incidentally, I’ll ignore the fact that Bruce Bowen, a renowned flopper, who switched to Paul after halftime, keeps hitting the floor suddenly and I keep rewarding him with fouls.
So, since on the first of those fouls, Chris made the shot, the Hornets would have been within 2 or 3 points, I feel good that the Hornets are now pushed to 7, which isn’t a huge swing, but those pesky Hornets keep trying to defend. But the longer this goes, the more upset and angry they are and now they’re playing scared, and the lead blossoms to 11. Fortunately, when you have two evenly matched teams, a 10 point swing really IS the game.
[EDIT: Fuck the refs, fuck the Spurs. Steal your home games any way you want. Bring it Monday, bitches. We'll see who the better team is. Believe that.]
Entries (RSS)
May 15th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Horry may not make it out of the Arena alive…..
May 15th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I know what I really feel here (and if not, edit it).
The refs can SUCK A TANKERLOAD OF DICKS!!!!
Fuckem. Fuckemall
May 15th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
That was fucking dirty.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
That was disgusting. But it’s homecourt, I guess.
Monday will be crazy, it won’t be broadcasted to Brazil so I’ll have to follow through the NBA.com box score, can you believe it? ¬¬’
Anyway, the refs are making a whole bigger diference than playoff experience so far.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
They won’t broadcast Game 7???? That’s horrible!
May 15th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
FUck the stupid refs.
That’ the worst thing about the NBA..someitmes i think the refs are being swayed by vegas money or something.
I am linking this post to my blog…because i am so fucking angry …the offensive fouls on CP and that stupid hard screen by HOrry knowing that D. West was hurt.
omg
so fucking pissed.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
It’s a fuckery I tell ya.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
I’m madder about D West than the refs. Hopefully the 4 days off will give him time to heal. Can’t believe the crowd chanting “Horry! Horry!” after he came in to thug him out of the game. It was a total hockey move, except if it was hockey, Byron Scott would have designated a hitman for — NOT Horry– one of their big three. You get what you give.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
The refs gave game 3 and 6 to San Antonio the same way. They made some big 3s, but they do seem to shoot better when we can’t breathe or sweat without getting whistled.
That first CP3 offensive foul occurred with Bowen a good 2 feet inside the half circle and moving. Every time Hiton or Pargo are planted with the back of their heel touching that line they get a blocking foul. WHAT THE HELL!!!!!
Apparently the ESPN assouncers think that it is “clever” defense to hit people where they are injured. Since Bonzi can’t hit a shot and can only foul instead of defend, I hope he FOULS somebody on Monday. How about Cheap Shot Rob?????
May 15th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
We got this on Monday. I have full faith. The dirty team must die on Monday– a most painful death.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I agree, Kal. And NOEngineer, I love “Cheap Shot Rob.” Now to paraphrase Jeff Van Gundy, if it was Lebron with his bad back, and P.J. Brown came off the bench to play his 2 minutes a game and 30 seconds later tossed his arms into Lebron’s back, what would the call be? Maybe even a flagrant? (I’m referencing JVG’s comments about Songalia’s suspension for hitting Lebron.) But when it’s the all-time winner against the new buck, no such luck. The worst part about it was, even I wouldn’t call a flagrant. Horry is THAT savvy that it LOOKED innocuous. But if you watched the replay carefully, it was clear that he moved into West on purpose, and that he did it with just enough care to avoid looking like he meant to do it. I think people should be hard pressed to fail to see that it was intentional. It reminds me of Gil’s comments on the Kenyon Martin flagrant that broke Ely’s cheekbone or eyesocket, or whatever it was: it may not have been intentional, but it sure was on purpose.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
I almost broke a glass at the Bull Dog tonight because I saw five fuck3d up calls in at the beginning of the second half. I’m gonna cut somebody.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I seriously went to the bathroom because I thought I burst a blood vessel in my eye screaming.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:09 am
I’ve never really known Spurs fan as horrendous as this (and I’m from Texas, so I’ve seen my share of ‘em), but y’know, mob mentality.
You have to realize that the Hornets were pretty poor offensively too. Barring injury, we had TONS of good shot selection and opportunities, and also gave the Spurs plenty of space to spread the floor. To their credit, they made the open shots like nothing all game. Again, it sucks to admit, but it’s just something we have to understand as well.
And I like that name ‘Cheap Shot Rob’. What a bastard.
May 16th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I agree, Mark, it’s not like the Hornets played the perfect game. I think my frustration is how often you hear NBA coaches talk about loose balls and tight defense, and how the 1 or 2 possessions that you fall asleep can be the difference in the Playoffs. And then you have to endure 5 straight possessions where the game was taken out of your hands.
And yes, they went and lost their cool even after CP tried to regroup them, but even they realized that as tough as they came out in the second, the refs, intentional or not, deflected every bit of that effort by keeping the Bees at bay until the Spurs could take advantage of the Hornets frustrations. I’d be made too (oh wait, I was!).
And so no, the refereeing wasn’t atrocious the whole game, just that one stretch. But like I said about the Boston game (in the regular season), at Boston, when that stretch changes the entire dynamic of the game, something has gone horribly wrong.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:48 am
a lot of fans complain about officiating…not sure if it’s just this site, but seems like hornets fans take first prize.
try to put the homerism aside and look again at the fouls, at least 4 of the 5 would be called that way 95% of the time, it’s not the reason the hornets lost the game. dead the excuses.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:11 am
3 fouls on David West in under 30 seconds? I’m in favor of giving people this space to be a little irrational right now.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Radja9697-I’m from New Hampshire, I follow the Celtics (vaguely) and the Spurs get more calls than a sex hotline. They flop, they hack & they check and nobody ever does anything about it. It is literally shameful. They beat the Suns by playing dirty last year and they’re doing their damnedest to do that to the Hornets this year. They are a dirty team-period.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Actually every single team that has lost in the playoffs has pretty much complained about fouls, go into a laker room and scroll back to the game they lost in utah, man was there a lot of foul complaints. Look it’s obvious that home teams get more calls because frankly if your job is to referee for these people who get millions of dollars a year compared to your minimum wage I’m sure now and again the ref wants a little spotlight, and who better to give it to ‘em than the home crowd. The good refs call it how they see it and deal with a lot of fan hatred if it’s against the home team so lately most officials just call it for the home team, especially in the playoffs it’s been nuts(bryant should never have gotten 20 some free throws, are you serious that’s about what a team should get) but like on days where the mavs are fouled 34 times that stuff has got to stop, that is when david stern needs to reevaluate his officials and find a way that we can enjoy some good unbiased basketball.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:24 am
I think at that stretch nothing dirty was happening and they should have just let ‘em run. My favorite stretches have been the ones where nothing’s called either way. Some of the fouls called on the Spurs in this series I could have done without as well, for various reasons.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I think enough of the fouls that got called in that short space of time were legit to affect the game and we lost, basically fair and square. We werent hitting shit and we werent defending.
Again, we LOST reasonably fairly. I dont think the ref-ing lost us the game.
The refs definately helped make it a blowout. It would have been closer if two of those fouled hadnt have been called (2nd Paul and 1st West). It would have been competitive, especially if we had gotten into a rhythym.
Horry is a goddam motherfucking shitbag that deserves to have his nuts crushed. That was intentional (though Ill concede not Flag-2) and it was SHITTY. The game was already decided at that point, and Dwest wasnt hitting shit, so there is NO REASON to believe the intention was ANYTHING but to keep him out of Game 7. That, my friends, is why Horry should be gutstomped OR we should ‘take out’ one of their big three (like Manu) IMMEDIATELY at the start of Game 7. You arent going to beat us by playing dirty.
I have NEVER suggested fighting dirt with dirt before now. But sometimes you gotta send a message that is burned into your opponents so deeply that they see it for the remainder of their natural life.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:53 am
The main thing that I think everyone is saying or thinking is IT IS THE PLAYOFFS SO THEY SHOULD LET THEM PLAY!!!! These are grown men and little bumps should not be freethrows, frankly all this gay three point play shit drives me nuts, someone running in for a layup and bouncing off someone’s body for an easy shot should be just that, an easy shot. People who take advantage of that system are the ones who are “the greatest” blah blah blah, when we played the suns this year they let the teams play and they were awesome games, whenever games with few fouls occurred they were always awesome(well 90 percent of the time) so when it comes to a championship being on the line just let them play, if someone commits a hard foul then call it but all this little stuff if it doesn’t affect the game give it a break. I’m a Hornets fan but I want it to stop for everyone, the spurs, the hornets, jazz, lakers, celts, cavs, pistons EVERYONE DESERVES EQUAL TREATMENT IN ANY ARENA BECAUSE IT IS KILLING THE SPORT! If they keep this up they will have to call Samuel L. Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg to restart their “I still love this game” slogan crap all over again, because I love the game of basketball but stuff like this soils it’s good name. The Hornets are the one thing that has kept me going since my government has fucked me over and made it so hard to get benefits for a disorder that has socially crippled me, SO NOW THAT AFTER TWENTY YEARS MY TEAM IS FINALLY DOING GOOD THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO BE SCREWED OVER BY JACKED UP CALLS BECAUSE THEY ARE AWAY AT THE TIME, DO YOUR DAMN JOB STERN AND STOP SPENDING EVERY SECOND COVERING YOUR ASS FOR THAT RIDICULOUS SONICS MOVE DEAL!!!(WHICH IS RIDICULOUS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SONICS AND BELONG IN SEATTLE, IF OKLAHOMA WANTS A TEAM THEY CAN GET AN EXPANSION TEAM)……sorry had to explode a little, well gotta go to a med appt, everyone who likes the hornets take care
May 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Ok, so my husband is officially in the dog house. I logged in through my bee mail, clicked to see if tickets were available… had tickets in section 307 for $300 for the pair and he told me no because of a freakin babysitter…. ugh. I’m tempted to just go alone!!! Jackass. I’m so pissed right now I’m actully venting to my 4th graders LOL!
May 16th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I got a sub for today because I knew I was going to be too happy/too rageful to deal with work. That SUCKS, btw. We’re always saying how we can’t have kids b/c it would cost way too much to go to games. I hope Game 7 is CRAZY loud.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I’m with you on this one mW. Being a Mavs fan, I witnessed Dwayne (again, I refuse to spell his name incorrectly) Wade single-handedly get calls for nothing. And as we all know, the Mavs lost 4 in a row, and Wade got a huge paycheck from T-Mobile.
When the opposing team gets calls for nothing, it takes you out mentally, ESPECIALLY considering foul trouble can take the most dominant teams out of the game completely. While the refs take measures for fairness, might I exercise some ad hominem with Tim Donaghy? Hmm?
May 16th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I also want to say that I have definitely had my issues with certain calls in this series (as have Spurs fans), but at no point did I feel the officiating changed the outcome of the game until last night. After the 2-2 split I feel like we just flat out got beat. Just like we did to them in our wins. Last night a stretch of calls CREATED a dynamic shift that was tangible enough to affect the outcome because of its trickle-down effect.
And anyone calling for this being “homerism” can shove it somewhere dark. I know what I saw. The refs know what they saw. And BELIEVE IT, you don’t just happen to call that many one-sided fouls, (even if they are questionable, i.e., could have gone either) in a row in the Playoffs, while making no-calls on the other end, without knowing it. Referee ego? Home court? Fuck ‘em both. As someone else said above, call it straight on both ends.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Our school’s 5th grader that is in the Stingers is dancing Monday night…. every time I pass him in the hall I bust up with a “:cough:tickets:cough:”
He totally thinks I’m a weirdo.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
From the things I’m hearing today about Game 7 being a sellout in 2 minutes, I’m so glad I already have tickets for the whole playoffs.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Any news on david west’s back or will that be a gametime decision?
May 16th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Official word is that there’s nothing new wrong with it, and he’s going to play.
http://hornetsreport.com/HRForums/showthread.php?t=49333
And, the word straight from the official blog:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=293661374894655128&postID=7140701793961326319
(scroll all the way down)
May 16th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
And if you want to see the madness happen:
http://ballhype.com/video/was_the_spurs_third_quarter_flopfest_legit/.