Development Soup

Three days. Thats how long it took me to even talk about the romping that the Cowboys handed the Eagles this past Sunday. After the game, I told myself I was done with football until the Super Bowl, whether the Eagles get there or not. That would not be me being a good fan though, and I now realize that I have to watch the rematch on Saturday night. It is a very intriguing game, since I do believe that these two teams are move evenly matched than last Sundays score indicated. I will sit tight and watch. The Eagles can’t do any worse on offense, since its impossible for the score to go negative. Good luck birds. You will need some.

Anyone who reads my journal knows that one in three of my entries is some sort of rant, usually regarding NBA officiating. I love the game of basketball. I love to play, love to watch and hopefully one day I will have the opportunity to coach on some level. My journal entries that pertain to basketball often contain criticism of the NBA and its officials. I understand that the speed and strength of atheletes at the NBA level makes officiating a real challenge, but it does not excuse the wide variance in the amount of contact required to draw a whistle. At the begining of the NBA season I was ready to suffer through another season of wild calls, flopping and overall inefficient refereeing. I must admit that I am somewhat stunned by the turn around from seasons past, at least in the games I have had the opportunity to watch. While there still are bad calls, and there always will be, the officials seem to have finally adopted the ‘let em play’ philosophy.

Here is a great example

Derek Fisher playing great off the ball defense on Ray Allen in the Lakers-Celtics game prevents Allen from getting set to attempt a game winning three point shot. The refs did not blow a whistle simply because Allen falls down (which I sure he would not have done if it were not an end of game situation)

I can recall countless times so far this season where players glare at the refs with that ‘gimme the call’ look on their faces. Instead of watching Lebron and Kobe run layup drills on the opposition (Kobe’s night at the Garden not withstanding), we are seeing defense cause missed shots and turnovers. Now I am not saying that everything is perfect in the NBA now, but the acceptable contact level has risen dramatically from years past. The bottom line is,  ‘Basketball is a contact sport.’ The level of contact is dictated by the level of competition. Its too easy for a guy 6-8, 260 (Sorry Lebron) to get to the hoop and score when a defender knows he gets a whistle if he plays tough D. The soft fouls in the NBA have made me crazy for many seasons past, but seem to be going the way of the 8-track this season.

I don’t know if David Stern reads my blog or not, but regardless of where the concept came from (me!) its obvious to me that NBA officials have made a huge leap forward in eliminating soft fouls. I think it has enhanced the integrity of NBA basketball exponentially.

So now the Lakers are making a big deal about the refereeing (imagine that) of game 2. While I often disagree with calls in the NBA, I think so far in game 1 and 2 they have done a terrific job of letting them play and making the correct calls. (a couple of stinky ones aside )

I did see a couple possible fouls go uncalled (both ways), but the problem is not the referees. The Lakers need to get there weight up and stop the ball, stop getting pushed around in the paint, and stop fouling when they get beat.
The reality is , the Celtics are a much more physical team and when you are outplayed physically, the reaction is usually to foul. To me its not suprising at all that the Celtics had more trips to the line than the Lakers. Kobe deserved 1-2 calls that he didn’t get, but other then that, they need to stop crying and man up.

If you know me at all, you know I am a staunch critic of the officiating in the NBA. In my opinion, its the most terribly inconstant and just plain ugly thing in all of professional sports. So here I am watching tonight’s Spurs and Hornets game where somehow they manage to call 4 offensive fouls in like 2 minutes. Granted Chris Paul did push off on Bowan the second time, the two calls on West were epically bad, and they occurred 30 seconds from each other. I think as a prerequisite for officiating in the NBA, all NBA refs should be required (at the beginning of their career) to do a season in the Big East. That’s right, start at the college level before all these players get there theater degrees so they can see what it actually takes to knock someone down. Then maybe they will be able to tell when someone is flopping. Image that. The NBA without flopping.

It has been my long held opinion that NBA officiating is about as poor as it could possibly be. I felt that way until this evenings game between the Pistons and Magic when it got even worse. Total inconsistencies regarding the acceptable amount of defensive contact, phantom calls seemingly whenever someone falls down (all you need to do to get a foul call in the NBA is fall down) straight up bad calls and ridiculous non-calls aside, tonights blunder may actually cause me to stop watching NBA games for good.

In case you didn’t see, the ref’s allowed a shot to count almost 2 seconds after the 3rd quarter ended because the clock operator didnt start the clock. The officials in there infinite lack of wisdom decided to count the shot. Brilliant!