General NBA watching thread. 2009 - 2010 edition.

[Dan1]

Originally Posted by tcat075

I think saying "The NBA is rigged!!!" over and over is just an excuse for your team. With basketball, its just time to accept that there will be bad calls, but that no game is ever rigged against you, at the very least not anymore.

It's not a excuse, it's a fact. We better get a damn GOOD team next season or bring Lebron or Wade. Otherwise, we're screwed, trust me.

[tcat075]

Originally Posted by Dan1

man, in 2008 the celtics were CLEARLY the best team. Stern and his puppets can't do magic. But when it comes down to equal teams the referees can certainly help.
the same logic work for the game 7 question. Some of the last nba finals were clearly not appealing as a celtics x lakers is. That was the highest rating since the Jordan era.

This makes no sense. The reason the NBA hasn't had more games go 7 is because the matchups have been sucky, so no one cares?

First off, people care about the Finals, no matter who is in it. The Spurs sweeping the Cavs, those three games cost the NBA millions of dollars. Maybe there aren't as many people watching as they would in a Boston/LA, but there's a lot more than any other game in the entire season.

And there were some good matchups besides Boston/LA. Our own 2006 playoff series. Miami and Dallas are both huge matchups. LA/Detroit? Lots of people in both of those cities. New Jersey went twice...you're telling me that they don't have a lot of fans?

If all the NBA truly cared about was money, they'd make games go 6 or 7 games every single time. At least. Not only for the money, but to keep interest. If a casual fan tunes into the Finals one year and sees four blowouts where neither team ever tries in the 2nd half, what are the chances he'll tune in next year to the regular season stuff?

Originally Posted by Dan1

It's not a excuse, it's a fact. We better get a damn GOOD team next season or bring Lebron or Wade. Otherwise, we're screwed, trust me.

Good logic here. We need to get a good team. If we get a bad team, we're going to lose and get screwed. But if we get a good team, we'll do good and win games. Last I checked, that's how sports work.

And saying the NBA is rigged is an excuse. Now, I'm not shy to bitch about officiating if I think its bad. I've seen terrible games, and they happen with much more regularity than any other sport. But its always stuff that happens to everyone. Dwyane Wade, despite being on a bad team, gets free throws. Its not because the league sent down a memo wanting their popular storied franchise the Heat to win, because they aren't that popular and have little history. Its because referees are biased and give the benefit of the doubt, and a little more, to Wade because of his reputation. This happens against the Grizzlies, but it also happens against the Lakers. If it mysteriously stopped against the NBA's marquee teams, I'd question the whole rigged thing a little more, but it doesn't. And the Heat don't succeed. Wade just gets free throws.

Dirk is viewed as a guard when he's "posting" at 20 feet, so officials allow two hands. They shouldn't, but it happens all the time, from the Nets to the Nuggets. Jason Terry is allowed to take a step then jump stop, sometimes two steps, without using his dribble. Other players do it too, but its viewed as not being a travel.

The referees are bad, they are biased for and against players, and sometimes, they do actually favor the good teams over the bad teams. But overall, there is no mandate that forces the refs to make sure the Cavs win 65 games. The fact that many of their games are blowouts, and not easily influenced by a few calls, helped support that.

Speaking of, if the NBA was really wanting Dallas to fail, then that streak of 8 consecutive wins in 1-point wins would not actually exist. A call or two could easily cause a loss, but we won those all.

[Dan1]

Originally Posted by tcat075

This makes no sense. The reason the NBA hasn't had more games go 7 is because the matchups have been sucky, so no one cares?

No. It's cause, as i said, they cant do anything they want. They can decide the outcome of a game just partially. In 06, it was to risky to bring the game 7 to dallas. In 04, the Pistons were much, much better than the Lakers. Same for the Spurs/Cavs series. And im not sure if they care that much about other teams even with the probable higher rating on games 6~7. But make Kobe the next MJ its a must and brings much more money.

Originally Posted by tcat075

Good logic here. We need to get a good team. If we get a bad team, we're going to lose and get screwed. But if we get a good team, we'll do good and win games. Last I checked, that's how sports work.

No, no. What i meant it's that we need to build a team that is clearly better than the Lakers, not equal. Or bring a superstar that Stern and his puppets like. Saying the NBA is rigged its not a excuse, just look back at the Kings/Lakers series in 02 and even the Mavs/Heat in 06. See the Tim Donaghy scandal, see the good "relationship" that Stern has with his referees. They protect superstars, they try to make new dinastys, new MJs, and always tender to favor the bigger teams. And if the referees are bad or biased, they shouldnt.

[tcat075]

Originally Posted by Dan1

No. It's cause, as i said, they cant do anything they want. They can decide the outcome of a game just partially. In 06, it was to risky to bring the game 7 to dallas. In 04, the Pistons were much, much better than the Lakers. Same for the Spurs/Cavs series. And im not sure if they care that much about other teams even with the probable higher rating on games 6~7. But make Kobe the next MJ its a must and brings much more money.

This still doesn't solve the question of why there haven't been more Game 7's or even Game 6's in the playoffs when teams which the league hypothetically has no rooting interest.

If they truly want money, and the matchup is, say, San Antonio versus Cleveland. You can argue which team they would want to win...I'd say Cleveland because of LeBron's marketability, which wouldn't make sense because they got swept. Even so, Game's 3 and 4 were decided by 3 and 1 point respectively. Just from a financial aspect, why wouldn't the NBA just decide to make it a 5 or 6 game series. I mean, it wouldn't effect the outcome to make the Spurs lose a couple after going up 3-0, and it'd help the league. If they do this on a regular basis, why not there?

1999: Spurs beat New York in a 4-1 series. Why wasn't it closer. Who would the NBA want to win, a San Antonio team or a New York team. NY is about 10x bigger than San Antonio...financially, wouldn't more jerseys and what not be sold if a New York team was the Champion. Maybe the Spurs were way better, but you're saying that they wouldn't influence the last game of the series, where SA was already up 3-1, so that New York won? The last game was a 1 point game. Easily riggable.

2002: LA 4-0 over New Jersey. The last two games were decided by a combined 9 points.

You see my point. There are games sitting out there in various Finals where it would have made sense for the NBA to rig them and likely not even change the outcome just so that they could pocket some more money, if that's all they want.

No, no. What i meant it's that we need to build a team that is clearly better than the Lakers, not equal. Or bring a superstar that Stern and his puppets like. Saying the NBA is rigged its not a excuse, just look back at the Kings/Lakers series in 02 and even the Mavs/Heat in 06. See the Tim Donaghy scandal, see the good "relationship" that Stern has with his referees. They protect superstars, they try to make new dinastys, new MJs, and always tender to favor the bigger teams. And if the referees are bad or biased, they shouldnt.

The referees are biased and bad. As you said they shouldn't be, but they are. But as more comes out about Donaghy, I doubt him more and more. Don't get me wrong, he didn't make it all up. However, I sincerely doubt the NBA is as involved as everyone says. They don't go decide which team they want to win each series. I've already said that there have been a couple times this decade where they dropped subtle hints. Actually, maybe I'm underestimating -- maybe there were a dozen times or so that dropped hints that Kobe needs to have a good game, or that the Kings can't win this series.

But a lot of what happened was just poor referees. And now? It's 100% referees. The NBA would just have to be stupid, after all the scandals that have gone on, to be rigging games right and left. You honestly think that something wouldn't slip? In this age, I think it would. Referees are still biased, still give Kobe more FT's than he deserves, still let LeBron travel, but its not because the NBA said so, but because they're just bad.

So maybe we need that better team to overcome those referee biases, but I would almost guarentee that there isn't some memo coming from the NBA front office that says, "Dallas cannot ever beat Los Angeles."