I just watched game 2 of the NBA finals today (God love the DVR), and hate to see an instance of bad officiating in the NBA, especially in such a high profile game. I have to admit, I didn't see anything more than highlights of the first game, but did hear grumblings about a "street fight" atmosphere from some Laker-backers.
While I would like to see Kobe get a ring sans-Shaq, I am not very partial to either team. I can say, without bias, that I have rarely seen such one-sided officiating as there was in the first half of Sunday night's game.
Any Celtic shot that was contested in the paint resulted in a foul.
Any "flop" taken by a Celtic player resulted in a foul, including a call against Kobe Bryant on the offensive side of the court, where he was trying to get post position on Ray Allen, and bumped him a hair harder than a passing person in a tight hallway.
Foul.
Not until Kobe was called for a technical foul in the third quarter did the calls start going both ways, and even then there were some very questionable fall calls on both teams.
I don't want to say there's a conspiracy going on with these finals, even though the NBA would be the shortest stretch of the imagination for that being the possibility (see: Tim Donaghy), but I would say "Homer" would be the correct verbage.
I have always disliked college officiating in both football and basketball, because I believe that officials, perhaps subconsciously, call for the team that is "supposed" to win. That can even come in an upset game, where there is media coverage about the possibility, and the officials believe the hype. I THOUGHT, the pro officials were beyond that.
Boston has long been the most repressed town in the universe, so the successes of their professional sports teams should be embraced by everyone, or so all of the media outlets are leading me to believe. Are the NBA officials also saturated with this hype? Do they believe that Kevin Garnett is the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, so Lamar Odom falling to the floor after a shot in the lane has to be due to his poor balance? That all of the bruised forearms of the Lakers inside players are self inflicted?
For example, if you go to USA Today's sports scores page, the advertisement for cell phone alerts reads as follows:
Live sports scores and stats on your cell phone: Send a text message to 4INFO (44636 on the keypad) with: TEAM NAME (e.g., CELTICS) or PLAYER NAME (e.g., GARNETT) for all games.
Force fed much?
I think the hype of a series, or of either of its teams can get dangerous in this aspect, and hopefully the officials, regardless of coast, call the game between two NBA teams playing a game, and not based on what either team "should" be doing, or "should" be capable of, or most importantly, who "should" win.
