NBA: Where Referee's Can't Ref

The NBA marketing machine hypes up the league with its star players opposed to it being a team game. This is a great way for fans to get into the games but when a team like San Antonio or Detroit got to the finals it seemed like no one really cared because this teams did not have a legit superstar, even though Timmy D is a great player he doesn’t have that star appeal to anyone outside of Texas.

This goes hand in hand with the referees giving star players the benefit of the doubt in terms of foul calling. IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY TO SEE LEBRON TRAVEL AND CARRY (and other stars too). Here is Lebron getting a ludracris call

On the topic of referee’s how many times do we have to see make up calls before Mr. Stern decides to attempt to fix this? Its bullshit how many non / makeup calls there are.

Just in the playoffs a couple seasons ago there were suspensions for coming off the bench between the Suns and Spurs shifting the outcome of that series in my opinion. But that was not called down the middle. Dallas and Heat finals game 3 D Wade drives on Dirk and a phantom call changed the momentum of the whole series.

Although I would say that of all the major sports basketball is probably hardest to ref. That’s why I can give these refs some leeway. But how many times during a Magic / Raptors game do we have to see Andrea get called for fouls that D12 won’t get called on at the other end of the floor?

The NBA needs to step it's game up and fix this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Raptors In January

The January honeymoon for Raptors fans is over. We welcomed February with a loss to the Indiana Pacers and pulled out a game that was close for 3 quarters against the lowly Nets, with the half time show featuring Vanilla Ice of all people (maybe reason enough to go see the 4-44 nets)

Going 10-5 in the month with a 3 game and 5 game winning streak in January we had a bunch of Raptors fans all over the place drinking the Kool-aid. Why? Well they beat a bunch of teams that are supposed to be good.

Let’s take a look at the losses of the month, 2 losses to the Celtics who were missing Garnett for both and Rondo for the first. Another loss which should have been a win after blowing such a big lead was against the Pacers. A loss to Cleveland is expected, while losing the first of a back to back against the Bucks is ok. Well it’s only ok if your team is going to flirt with .500 ball all season long. Now wins over the Knicks, Heat, Pacers, Bucks, 76ers should happen. Even if they are grinders, a win is a win.

Well now you are probably thinking...what about beating The Mavericks, Lakers, Magic and Spurs? Well sorry to rain on your parades, but all these teams did not really show up to these games. San Antonio didn’t play very well and even though 10 games over .500 has been fairly inconsistent. Dallas went 8-9 in January playing some poor basketball. Orlando is slumping a bit too (I think they are missing Hedo) and finally what some people called the biggest win of the season so far against the Lakers. The Lakers don’t show up for some of their games mentally, even coach Phil Jackson said this has worried him www.espn.com. I noticed this last year with the Lakers as well, they don’t seem to show up for all their games but find a spot in the game where they will dominate and turn it on in time for the playoffs.

All in all, the team won the games they should have won and came out with a few surprise wins but I don’t see the reason for everyone to get so excited. We will see how they do in the next 5 games where they should go at least 3-2, with 4-1 looking really realistic. That's the Raptors in January.

On a final note Vanilla Ice?

Seriously?