i hope your team loses a heartbreaking world series in which calls in games 3 5 and 6 adversely affect your team. you’ll be standing there going, “What the f#*@?!? We had this game, we had this series, if not for the jackasses in blue.”

Meanwhile, much of America will call you a whiner and command you to stop bitching because your team lost– they had opportunities to win, and, “It isn’t like it was in game 7.”

I would love to see that. Plus with a poorly officiated World Series we would have the triple crown of poorly officiated professional championships.

People haven’t bitched like this in past years because it hasn’t, even in the officials’ poorest days, been done so egregariously on the highest platform– championship games/series.

And do you really think the commentators make statements against the officials? How many times (in a game that perhaps you don’t even really care about) do you see what you think is an absolutely ridonkulously poor call, but you never hear a peep about it, never see a reply. If anything, the game announcers protect the officials–just like they protect coaches and players in general, and their own network in general.

I don’t know if overall officiating is better or worse. I just know that it has been bad at top levels lately, and these days we expect better. We don’t put officials above the law, nor above review. They can expect Monday mornings to be just like they are for the coaches and athletes– if someone does a poor job, they hear it from all the talking heads.

And also… just a thought… when people pay 40 bucks or more a ticket, pay 40 bucks or more to park, pay 87 dollars a beer, 23 dollars a hotdog– they expect the officiating to be perfect. You go to a high school game and pay 4 dollars at the door and 1.25 for a hotdog, you almost expect poor (but hopefully honest) officiating.

you’d have to be a sad individual to say “we should’ve won the championship IF the refs sent us to the line!”

sure, going to the rack hard for freebies is one thing, and wade does do that. however the in-and-out jump hook on the left side of the bucket in the first half as well as the running flip shot where daniels got whistled for a grade 6 girls league touch foul don’t fall into that category, yet he continues to get that treatment from the officials. can’t blame him for going to that strategy of flipping it up when he’s out of control, the onus has be placed on the refs

i can whole heartedly say that this may be the last year i watch the nba after being a die hard my whole life. from the opening credits to mike breen to their halftime crew to a brutal display of favorism by officials. and why the hell would you go 2-3-2 for one series when it’s been 2-2-1-1-1 since the dawn of time? no the nba isn’t rigged, but maybe it should be so the fans can be certain of the quality of product they’re getting

maxpower- i absolutely hate Zo and everything he stands for. No one in his situation should be allowed to act like an ass like he routinely does after QUITTING on the one team that was willing to give him a multiyear deal,and being such a bitch as to use his illness as a reason to ‘shut it down till I get traded’. And then go running back like a little bitch to ride Wade’s coattails. He’s no champion in my book. Champions earn theirs. I felt badly for the guy when he got sick but his actions in NJ invalidated any right he had to gloat, fight, intimidate or do whatever stupid else things he does

Sarcastro- i agree that the mavs didnt drive it nearly enough to draw fouls, but to say that Wade would’ve been hit so call it anyways is bogus. Let the foul happen and no one disputes it. But when guys like Wade, Lebron, etc (even my Pistons, Rip did that a lot) it is against the rules and the refs blatant disregard for that makes them the bigger story. Also, while I see your point about the payton grab, a) it should’ve been 3 ft’s on the shot, and even if not called, you try shooting a desperate 3 w/ someone yanking your shirt, it’s probably not going down.

The main thing I want out of all of this is no more nonsense talk about Shaq = Superman, #1 option, and Wade is the sidekick. Shaq would be lucky to be Wade’s sidekick. Haslem made a way better case for a sidekick than anything Shaq did. Fuk the Heat. Pistons in 07 baby.

As for people who claim that Wade was “dominating,” that’s true only to the extent that he used his preferred status with the officials to repeatedly use out-of-control drives to garner foul shots. Kudos for him for learning about the flaw in the system and taking advantage of it. Still, it is a flaw, and should be rectified.

Zo rules

And if they called the foul of Payton, Terry would take three FTs, not two. If he made the three-ball, he’d have a chance for a four-point play to win the game.

That being said, I’d like to bitch about the calls. They need to do something in the off-season about the not allowing hand-checking, letting moving picks, and calling touch fouls on drives. The two most bitched about series were the DET-CLE and the Finals, and it was because Wade and Lebron are unguardable if you allow this. All the other new rules have been great (resulting in more team play, faster games, better shooting), but the attempt to create another MJ flies in the face of all these other improvements.

Here are some tips for dallas:

If you don’t want to have such a foul disparity maybe you should’t have a defensive strategy that involves intentionally fouling somebody who is going to get the ball on every possession.

If you want to get to the line more often, consider driving to the hoop instead of taking a million jump shots.