aaron - good discussion. i really think we agree more than we disagree. tommy point for you. i do think lebron takes it further than anyone else, but he is essentially a product of the system.
paintitgreen - pierce, and other stars, do complain on the court. i dont have much of a problem with that. ideally, it'd all go away, but that's at least understandable. i just dont like complaining to the media after games when you (lebron) get more calls than anyone in the league. and yes, he did certainly complain to the media during the wizards series, and mike brown made sure to mention it last night (i realize that's not lebron). if i was lebron (or mike brown), i wouldn't say a word on the court, because i'd realize that the nba already does everything they can to ensure my (and my team's) success.
do refs ever single-handedly determine the outcome of a game? no. there's always 3 or 4 plays one team could have made that would have changed things. BUT, in the nba playoffs, when teams are so even, the refs can certainly cause a 5 or even 10 point difference in the outcome. in a close game, that often becomes huge. it's hard enough to beat another good team, but it's even harder when you have to compensate for an extra 5-10 points over the course of a game. why make one team work harder than the other to win? why can't it be fair?
if we'd lost last night, THE REASON wouldn't have been the officiating. of course we made plenty of mistakes, as did the cavs. but the flagrant call on cassell certainly didn't help us. it was a joke of a call that made us compensate for an extra 2 points over the course of the game. over the course of a game, there are bound to be bad calls for both sides. but there's no business for calls like that flagrant. if that was anyone in the league other than lebron, that wouldn't have been called. we certainly won't be getting any calls like that in our favor.