pinko, i feel the same way. my imperfect solution? try not to think about it. che would not be proud. this country does not deserve our presence, or our presents in the form of tax dollars and consumer purchases. but, sadly, man is a creature of habit. i know only this. it is like a kid who was beaten by his parents, and then goes on to beat his children. it's all he knows, even if he knows it's wrong. so, i live here because my parents live here, and everyone else i know is here too. somehow this argument doesn't fly when it was used by germans during hitler's reign, but what other reason is there? too often now i feel resigned, as if what you postulate isn't even an option, when of course it is, if one only had the drive to attempt it. i wish i could give you a bunch of melodramatic shit about how we are fortunate to be fighting it out here, in the belly of the beast, but i feel that the beast has long since digested me. it is no all out war. at best, i occasionally land a harmless jab or two.
it is monday, june 9th, and i an still attempting to recover from the robbery that was game 2 of the nba finals. the celtics took 38 free throws compared to 10 by the lakers. leon powe, a seldom used reserve for the c's, attempted 13 free throws in 15 minutes of play, three more than the entire laker team. the media has been bemoaning the fact that the lakers are not physical enough, and their defense is mediocre. if this is the case, why did the celtics attempt 4 times as many free throws? shouldn't it be the physical team that gets called for more fouls? and for sure, the celtics were fouling on nearly every play. it just wasn't being called. as it was, the lakers cut a 24 point deficit with 7 minutes to go down to 2, and might have won if pierce had not been bailed out with a call on a missed lay up with 18 seconds to go.
i have my theories for the atrocious officiating of these first two games.
1) the ratings, while better than they have been for recent finals, are still not up to the jordan years. the league/network might not feel the need to have a long series.
2) the nba always likes to have a strong celtic team. historically, when the celtics have been good, they have gotten the calls, particularly at home. this is nothing new. it goes back to the 1960's, and perhaps the most infamous call in nba history. in 1962, the then philadelphia warriors were battling the celtics to a stand still. this was the year wilt averaged 50 points a game for an entire season. it was game 7, and the game was very close coming down to the end. tommy heinsohn took one of his hook shots from about 15 feet, and wilt blocked it. he was called for goaltending. my dad claims wilt was at least 10 feet from the basket. earl strom, the great ref, wrote in his book, that it was one of the worst calls he had seen, and the call was made by mendy rudolph, a friend of strom's. shortly thereafter, guy rodgers, the warrior passing wizard, fouled out of the game. normally not a great scorer, rodgers was going for 30 in this game before the refs got rid of him. bob cousy, in a show of remarkable class, walked across the court to the warrior bench, while the game was still in progress, to shake guy's hand. oh, by the way, the celtics won by 2 points, the same 2 points stolen from wilt and his warriors. but when they talk about wilt being a "loser" and russell a "winner" no one ever talks about this call.
in 1981, history would repeat itself. yet another game seven, again between philly and boston, again in the boston garden. with 5 minutes left, philly has a 7 point lead. and then, all of a sudden, the refs put their whistles away, allowing the celtics to play rugby. this has been acknowledged recently by boston globe writer peter may, and was also written about in bird's book, "drive." perhaps the critical non-call took place with about a minute to go. the sixers were up one, when center darryl dawkins went up for a short jumper from the corner. he was hit by two different celtic players. according to bird, dawkins was "clobbered." no call. the celtics raced up the court, and bird hit the defining shot of the series, a bank shot that put the c's ahead to stay. if the call is made, dawkins gets two shots, and that fast break never takes place. oh, by the way, the c's won this game by 1 point.
so, this is nothing new. but it still sucks. i would say the game i saw last night was one of the very worst officiated games i have ever seen. having said that, if the c's historically have gotten the most calls, the lakers are not far behind. who among us can forget how the kings were robbed back in 02? the nets were also brutalized by the refs that year against the lakers, but because they were swept, no one recalls it. think about this; the nets had more field goals than the lakers in each of the four games, and lost all four of them. in each game, the lakers made more free throws than the nets attempted. and through it all, phil jackson never had a word of criticism for the refs. of course today, he is a little more vocal.
in the end, that is what it will take. it will take victorious coaches and players saying "man, we got every call out there tonight. that wasn't fair. look, i want to win as much as anyone, but i want to win fairly, not by getting every single call and non-call." george foreman once said that when fighters win decisions they don't deserve, they need to say "i lost that fight tonight. that was a terrible decision."
sort of like how the american people need to tell the truth about their government and culture. if some guy in iraq opposes the war, we can shrug it off. if a black guy in the inner city criticizes the police, we can ignore it. essentially, we need to become a world of truth tellers, and more importantly, truth doers. and of course, we are far from that. when i got back to work today, the kids had on their pierce jerseys, and the adults were gloating about how the c's were only 2 wins away. they weren't gonna mention the refs. for, when your side benefits from the lies, and when the crimes are committed in favor of your side, most people will ignore them. think about it; we have a nation of people who acknowledge the holocaust in germany, but don't even have a rudimentary grasp of u.s. imperialism. there are people who cry for darfur and tibet, and never think twice about what is being done by our military in iraq. likewise, for most of us, when the teams we root for get calls, we ignore it, but if the calls go against our side, we speak out, loud and clear. that my friend, is the definition of a hypocrite. to only speak out when something wrong is being done to you, and not the other way around, is beyond contempt.
and this is the world we live in.
we are all full time members of the nba.
the national bullshit association.
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