The NBA will do this until their is outrage, at some point, there was last year. In the finals LeBron had the same refs as the rest of the world. I watched five minutes of our last game, and you could tell how it was going to be.
I hope it lights AB's fire and he shows up!
Exactly. Everyone knows what's going on (as evidenced by the little conversation had by the announcers), but until a big fuss is made about it nothing will change. It's just ridiculous that people will accept the status quo just because it's the status quo. I'm telling you, if I was Stevens and this game goes the same way, I throw a fit about it to the media. At least it will buy you a game or two of more fairly officiated basketball.
And the rest of the league needs to join in on the fight, too, because virtually every team outside of the Cavs, Clippers, and Rockets (and maybe the Thunder) have an interest in a more fairly officiated game that doesn't give the megastars of the league a huge advantage.
The game won't change and it shouldn't.
It amazes me that some the league's old timers (not you, just talking in general) glorify the Bird/Jordan days where superstars got the same if not more favorable treatment from the referees.
I highly doubt the referees go into games deliberately looking to protect LeBron or Durant. The problem is that the referees can't be in perfect position to make every call. When a guy without the athleticism of LeBron barrels towards the rim flailing his arms and screaming (Jordan Crawford, Evan Turner), he's not going to come out of a scrum in which the referee can't make out any distinguishable contact with a foul call, even if he really got hacked, because he looks out of control. When a guy goes to the rim and looks graceful and the referee knows he has superior strength/speed/body control/ball handling, but can't make out of a foul when 3 or 4 defenders swarm to protect the rim, he's going to get a foul call, even if he didn't get hacked at all. The referee can't always see what happened, so a lot of it is the assumption that someone had to have fouled the offensive player if they make a good, strong move to the basket but the shot doesn't go in. To me, that's not primarily about a superstar's unspoken allegiance with a referee. Superstars -- particularly ones with appealing athletic ability -- look more in control driving to the rim and defending. So they get the benefit of the doubt when the referee can't see what truly happened. That's fine with me.
Topic: JR. Smith: You can't touch Avery Bradley. He's like Kobe now. (Read 7463 times)