Martini Republic
NBA reaches WWF levels of un-credibilty
June 20th, 2006
After deciding game 5 of the NBA finals with a disputed call at the end of the game, the referees decided to end any questions regarding the credibility of the NBA by calling a foul when Dwayne Wade(sic) appeared to throw an arm into Dirk Nowitski.
Of course, they called a foul on Nowitski. And the foul was called with less than a minute to play, and the Heat leading by one point.
To be honest, I didn’t watch most of the game. I stopped watching after the second phantom foul in Wade’s favor (where Marquis Daniels didn’t touch him on a shot). It was just a bit much after the first phantom foul (where Wade flopped untouched after making a jumper) and the play where Devin Harris was whistled after Wade dropped a shoulder into him on a drive. Even Hubie Brown was aghast.
NBADraft.net
D-Wade: The Transcendent Super-human
…it’s almost tragic that the shoddy officiating will overshadow Wade’s truly amazing Finals performance. I want to extend my deepest apologies to Mavericks fans. No fan-base deserves to go though what they did these past four games. I’ve been a proponent of the “refs don’t beat you, quit your whining” perspective, but this was like enduring the Don Denkinger Game from the 1985 World Series, only four times in a row. Unless you’re a Miami Heat fan or one of Dwyane Wade’s relatives, this is a bad day to be an NBA fan.
Joey Love’s Blues & Beyond
What a series…. NOT !
There’s probably more footage in the series of bad calls then you could probably gather in the entire season. Come on… Wade himself gets to the line 25 times… more than the entire Mavs team and you don’t think the calls were one sided ? I’m trying not to breathe as I write this because I’m afraid I might be called for a foul on Wade ! Was that really a foul when Wade split Dirk and Devin Harris near the end of Game 5, no… Harris has been splitting defenders all season long getting knocked around in the process with no calls and Wade slips through with minimal contact if any and gets a call. This is the frickin’ NBA not 4th grade pee-wee basketball !!! Dirk gets pounded all the time… Stackhouse gets a bloody nose… no call, Mavs players flying to the floor… no calls ????
SportsBiz
Cuban Slapped with $250,000 for Truth Talking
The phantom time out and phantom foul on Dwayne(sic) Wade at the end of the last game should have enraged anyone who wasn’t a Heat fan. The still inexplicable suspension of Jerry Stackhouse only set Cuban up for the tirade he had in Miami at the end of game 5. It should make for great theatre for the last two games, if there are two and for that i suppose we should thank Stern. Perhaps he should thank Cuban instead of fining him for having an owner who cares enough about the performance of his team to actually argue a call.
The Scores Report
Refs win first title
Miami 95, Dallas 92 (Heat win series, 4-2)
I’ve played basketball for more than 20 years, and one thing is certain: there is nothing more frustrating (from an opponent’s perspective) than a ref giving calls to a good player who repeatedly throws himself into a defensive player. It’s almost like the officials have an incomplete checklist. Was there contact? Check. Is the offensive player a superstar? Check. Let’s send him to the line! Only the refs are forgetting the most important question: does the offensive player create the contact? The officials gave Game 5 to the Heat when, at the end of the game, they rewarded Dwayne(sic) Wade with two free throws on a phantom foul call on Dirk Nowitzki. Fast forward to the end of Game 6, 0:26 to play, Miami leading 91-90, Wade drives the ball, throws his arm out into a retreating Nowitzki, and Wade gets the call. Sure, the Mavs had a chance to tie at the buzzer, but that foul call put Dallas in a bad, bad position.
Selling Waves
More Hate
On the plus side (upside, perhaps, in honor of everybody’s favorite spineless color man?), at least the NBA’s officials for Game 6 maintained consistency in calling fouls against the Mavericks for swiping at the ball in Dwyane Wade’s hands and completely missing everything, for standing there when Wade threw his body into someone and flipped the ball over his head, and for getting in the way of Wade’s forearm. On the down side…well, isn’t the downside pretty obvious? (And that doesn’t even get into the fact that both games 5 and 6 essentially ended on phantom foul calls; whatever happened to letting the players decide the game?)
Seize the Means
The Basketball Blogs: Part II
I’ll never watch the NBA again.
I’m a fan of the game–basketball, hoops, the roundball as they say–though I’m not necessarily a fan of the Mavericks or Heat. In truth friends, I’m a Celtics fan–the Celtics who suck a big time mightily, who have driven to near suicidal–so I could give a rat’s ass who wins this year’s finals. For the love of Pete, just let the games be good. And let Shaq’s free-throws resemble tires heaved from a truck.
Yet after watching the refs hand–HAND, I say–Game 5 to the Heat in OT, on a phantom foul that sent D-Wade (who is truly, spectacularly gifted and needs no help) to the line with less than 2 seconds left, where–swish, swish–he calmly stole the game, well…let’s just say I’m f*$*& disgusted and driven to drink.
Tomorrow, not a single paper (except maybe the ones in Dallas) will run in its sports pages the headline: The Mavs Were Jobbed! Yet the Mavs were jobbed. Big time. Capital J to the O to the double B, ED. Cheated. Screwed over by the zebras, and on national TV nonetheless. I guess Jesus was out skateboarding.
Unique LIke Everybody
Can a guy get some decent officiating around here?
For everything I said about FIFA officiating, NBA officiating is much, much worse. It got bad enough that I didn’t even watch the second half of last night’s game.
That upsets me more than it probably should, but sports fans are by nature irrational. See, I loved these playoffs. They made me giddy. I stayed up to watch every Suns game, even when they didn’t end until 2am. The Mavericks and Spurs were awesome. The Suns and Mavericks was a non-stop joyfest. Wade, LeBron, and Carmelo were all in the playoffs together for the first time. Elton Brand finally got to play on the big stage. It was amazing.
The NBA Finals destroyed all that.
Look, I love Dwyane Wade. He is my favorite player to enter the league since Allen Iverson. But the Mavericks were utterly and totally jobbed by officials protecting Wade in this series. It was a disgraceful performance by the referees.
In game six, Wade personally shot as many free throws as the Mavs. He set a new Finals record for free throw attempts, which would be one thing if it was just a rough game where everyone was fouling and people went to the line a lot. But in fact, only one team went to the line a lot. Anyone watching that game cannot honestly say that only one team was aggressive, only one team was going to the basket, only one team was playing defense with its feet. After a full season of “the new Mavs,” not one announcer claimed they had reverted. So how to explain the disparity?
WhenEFTalks 