Category Archives: NBA

It’s a Hate-Fest. And it’s not Surprising.

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

For the past 24 hours, two prominent athletes have been taken behind the barn by sports fans and beaten senseless. Talk about a hate-fest, we’re in the middle of one right now.

The two victims brought the wrath of sports fans down on themselves, but maybe I’m getting soft. Maybe, after two days of this relentless thrashing, LeBron James and Roberto Luongo deserve a break.

After all, both led their respective teams to the championship round of their respective sports and while one lost, the other one is very much alive.

LeBron has taken an incredible beating over the last 48 hours and he’s taken that beating for two reasons: 1) He told the world on a TV show last summer that he was leaving Cleveland and taking his talents to South Beach and 2) he and his new teammates celebrated winning a championship before they’d even had one practice together. Bad form on both counts.

Certainly, LeBron was not good in the championship final, but he didn’t really deserve the length and breadth of the hate that was heaped upon him. For instance:

1) John Kasich, the governor of Ohio named the Dallas Mavericks honourary “citizens’ of Ohio for avenging James’ defection and praised Mavericks’ series MVP, Dirk Nowitzki, for “keeping his talents in Dallas.” Ouch.

2) Sommee Cards, an electronic greeting card company, offered this epithet for sale on-line: ”Thanks for being less disappointing at your job than LeBron James.” My goodness. That’s a greeting? In fairness, they offered up another one that read: “I hope to someday will myself to succeed as effectively as I willed LeBron James to fail.”

3) A large group of, what we’re told were originally Cleveland-based tweeters,  proclaimed Monday to be “National LeBron James Day.” Anyone celebrating the holiday would be allowed to leave work 12 minutes early.

On Twitter it got a lot worse. At my radio station, Streetz 104.7, it was just one giant LeBron joke after another.

Granted, he brought it upon himself, but anyone who ran into him on Monday still wanted his autograph. He’s still a star and who knows, he might win next year. Maybe.

Regardless, he lost four basketball games out of six. That’s really all he lost. After awhile, all the hating, just seemed silly.

Meanwhile, poor Roberto Luongo couldn’t buy a polite comment after the Bruins beat his Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Monday night. Of course, Luongo was yanked after eight minutes and 35 seconds, trailing 3-0. Frankly, I just get the sense he can’t see very well in that rink in Boston.

It got so nasty on Monday, there was even a takeoff of “The World’ s Most Interesting Man” going around that had Luongo pictured with his Dos Equis beer bottle saying, “I don’t always play like a bag of shit, but when I do, I prefer the playoffs.” OK, so it was funny, but the fact is, Luongo just came off a shutout at home and could very well get another one on Wednesday night. That would give Vancouver the Cup, for those keeping score at home.

Meanwhile, it’s nice that American hockey fans were ripping Luongo, but those people south of the border should have been less concerned about the Bruins clubbing the Canucks 5-2 and be more concerned about the fact that Monday night’s game on NBC was down 37 per cent in the ratings from last year.

And American hockey fans think Atlanta will be the only team to vacate? Right.

 

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LeBron Says “I’m Sorry.” Cool.

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

LeBron James is well on his way to his goal. After “taking my talents to South Beach,” James has been absolutely instrumental in the Miami Heat’s destruction of the Boston Celtics. Now it’s off to the Eastern Conference final and it’s very likely the Heat will win that one, too.

On Wednesday night, James scored 10 points down the stretch as Miami finished up on a 16-0 run to come back from an 87-81 deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Celtics 97-87 and eliminate Boston from the Eastern Conference semifinal in five games. In the end, it was a whuppin’.

Dwyane Wade had 34 points and 10 rebounds, James had 33 points and seven rebounds and Chris Bosh had 14 points and 11 rebounds as Miami got another 81 of 97 points from “The Big Two and a Half.” Miami will now await the winner of the Chicago-Atlanta series.

It was local basketball expert and former national basketball team star, Rick Watts of Winnipeg, who came up with “The Big Two and a Half.” We’d been calling them the Big Three all season, but after watching Bosh for a few games in the playoffs, Rick determined that the former Raptor  was only half of a James or Wade and I couldn’t agree with him more. As Rick went on to say, “the best thing the Heat could do for its future is win the NBA Championship this year and then trade Bosh to get a legitimate big man.” He’s dead right again.

The Heat was terrific in this series against Boston and in the end, James was more gracious than many people might have expected. In fact, he told ESPN the following:

“I knew deep down in my heart, as much as I loved my teammates back in Cleveland and as much as I loved home, I knew it couldn’t do it by myself against that team. The way it panned out with all the friends and family and the fans back home, I apologize for the way it happened. I knew this opportunity was once in a lifetime. To be able to come down here and pair with two guys and this organization — in order for me to move on with my career, that team that we just defeated, we had to go through them.”

James is not a stupid man. And those who know him well will say he’s a decent guy. After beating Boston you can see why he did what he did last summer. And even he knows now that he was duped by Jim Gray and ESPN into that stupid TV show.

It was not a mistake to leave Cleveland. It was a huge mistake to leave Cleveland the way he did. He knows that. Wednesday night, he manned up.

Now it’s time to watch him go ahead and win a championship.

 

 

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Don’t Hate Kobe, Love the Mavericks

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The one great thing about basketball is that the game has superstars. You have your LeBron and your Derrick Rose and your Dwyane Wade and your Paul Pierce. You have your Blake Griffin, your LaMarcus Aldridge, your Amare Stoudemire, your Chris Paul and your Carmelo Anthony. NBA Basketball is a game of loud music, celebrity fans and star players.

That’s why, when a team like the Los Angeles Lakers starts to lose basketball games, it’s easy to hate on Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Heck, it’s so easy, even the Lakers are hating on the Lakers.

It is amazing. Pau Gasol “doesn’t get the ball enough,” Andrew Bynum says “no one has his back and the team has trust issues” and everyone hates Kobe because they think he shoots too much. Day after day we hear loud complaints that Kobe keeps firing up shots and everybody else on the team, stands around and watches.

Gee, well whose fault is that? Could it be that the Lakers have stopped listening to the Zen Master on the bench and they’re just out there free-lancing? Probably.

Every great thing comes to an end. We might be in the process of watching the Lakers “dynasty” coming to an end. And, frankly, it’s not because the Lakers are all that dysfunctional — despite what the Lakers and their fans would have us believe.

Here’s a scoop: The Dallas Mavericks are a good basketball team. After all, they finished the season with the same record as the Lakers, a record that would have been signficantly better if their own superstar, Dirk Nowitzki had been healthy for the duration.

Wednesday night, the Mavericks won Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal 93-81 in Los Angeles. Nowitzki had 24 points and seven rebounds and was the best player on the floor as Dallas led at the end of every quarter. With two straight wins in L.A., the Mavericks have a 2-0 series lead heading home.

Sure, when your ego is as large as the combined egos of the Lakers and their fans, it’s very hard to admit that some other team is better than you. It’s a lot easier to say, “We aren’t playing well and we should be whuppin’ those slugs that are whupin’ us. I mean, c’mon, they can’t be better than us.”

Sorry, they are.

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Lakers Are Champs in Worst Game Ever Played

Posted on June 18, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

As we expected, the Los Angeles Lakers won the 2010 NBA championship on Thursday night with an 83-79 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of “The Finals.”

It was not so much a basketball game as a brick throwers convention. For example:

1. Boston’s Paul Pierce, a great shooter, went 5-for-15.

2. Boston’s Ray Allen, just as good a shooter, went three-for-14 (two-for-seven from the three-point line).

3. The Celtics shot 40.8 per cent as a team. Clang!

4. Kobe Bryant, the  best player on the floor and the championship MVP, went six-for-24 and 0-for-six from the three-point line.

5. Pau Gasol, the second best player in the game, went six-for-16. Ron Artest went seven-for-18. Andrew Bynum was one-for-five. Lamar Odom was three-for-eight.

6. As a team, the Lakers shot 27-for-83, 32.5 per cent.

Those lovers of professional basketball — and there are many — will tell you that a sensational defensive effort by each team was the reason for the pitiful shooting performances.

I like to think it’s the clear fact that referees refuse to protect the shooter anymore. If you have the basketball, you’re fair game.

Unless, of course, you’re one of the brick-throwing Lakers. Here’s the most important stat of the game: From the free throw line, the Celtics were 15-for-17. From the free-throw line, the Lakers were 25-for-37.

There’s the difference in the final. 20 freakin’ free throws. The Lakers made 10 more free throws than the Celtics (and they still weren’t worth a crap from the charity stripe).

Sorry, but just by looking at that stat, you have to figure hat the NBA had (has?) more than one Tim Donaghy.

Look, it was an exciting series. Badly played, but exciting. I’m afraid I’m just too old. I remember when pro basketball players could shoot. I also remember when almost every NBA game ended with two aggressive basketball teams going to the line about the same number of times.

I picked the Lakers. I’m happy that Kobe won his fifth title and was named series MVP.

I just can’t believe that such a lousy basketball game was the game that determined the 2010 NBA champion.

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Why Hasn’t the Officiating Kept Up With the Play?

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

There is nothing more thrilling, more gut-wrenching or more excruciating that tournament college basketball. Whether it’s a conference final, the play-in game for the Madness of March or the NCAA championship game itself, it’s about as exciting a sporting experience as it ever gets.

And if you’re in an office pool, it’s even more fun.

The college game is so much different that the pro game. For one thing, there is no money involved in the outcome. There is, potentially, money involved in an individual performance, but it always seems that by the time these young players reach these monster tournaments (call ‘em reality TV shows if you like), you get the sense they aren’t thinking about the money so much as they are the prestige.

And unlike the pro game, the college game has actual rules that make sense. Travelling, as a for-instance. The college game looks a lot less like some bastardized version of European team handball than the pro game does with all its carry-balls and six steps to the hoop.

And that’s why it really chafes my ass when the officiating sucks. And believe me, with all the TV technology these days, it’s apparent it sucks a lot more than it’s good. In fact, there were times this past weekend when it just sucked out loud.

As an example – and there were many – in the recent Illinois-Ohio State Big Ten Tournament semi-final game, statutory rape was committed at one end of the floor and no foul was called while at the other, a soft tap on the shoulder would draw a two-shot foul and a warning. It’s a strange game this college basketball. It is played with all the heart and emotion that one could possibly muster with no sense of consistency or even thought – unless that thought is how much money I have placed on this game in Vegas.

If the refereeing were decent, just decent, tournament college basketball would be the perfect game. As it is it’s often very difficult to watch and even more difficult to understand – at least, without screaming at the TV.

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I don’t like ‘em. I’m sorry, but I just don’t like ‘em.

Posted on October 20, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

I have to admit, I don’t like sports officials at the best of times. I believe that there is no one anywhere who can referee anything properly at anytime.

My battles with basketball referees, subjective sport judges (every subjective sport judge on the planet, doesn’t matter if it’s figure skating or gymnastics, is crooked) and hockey officials have become legendary and, for the most part, I’m not proud of many of them.

 

However, I have no remorse. Everytime I yelled at an official, he deserved it. Every technical foul I took, I rejoiced in it.

 

Among my favourite shots directed at umpires have come from baseball fans. Here’s one from a well-known New York heckler named Bill Ferraro. This was a man who hated umpires almost as much as I do: “Hey, Blue! How about using some Windex on that glass eye!”

 

And another: “Hey Blue! I’ve had better calls from my ex-wife!”

 

And one of the greatest of them all: “Hey Ump!!! Damn good thing you don’t have three choices!”

 

Ferraro’s heckling brilliance was first chronicled by the New York Daily News. The Daily News loved this one: “Hey Blue! Don’t ever think about donating your eyes to science. They don’t want ‘em!!!”

 

Then there was this classic: “Can I pet your seeing eye dog after the game!”

 

And this one: “Come on Blue!!! Pull the good eye out of your pocket!”

 

Oh yeah, and this one: “Lenscrafters called…they’ll be ready in 30 minutes!”

 

Now, that’s harsh. But true.

 

This past weekend, I sat in my big-ass easy chair and spent almost 20 hours screaming at the TV.

 

First of all, we got dreadful homeplate umpiring in the ALCS. I know EVERYBODY loves the Boston Red Sox, but you can only squeeze the strike zone so far until somebody notices. I noticed. I threw things. I really didn’t care all that much if Tampa won the ALCS, but the freakin’ homeplate umpires made me cheer out loud for the Rays. Good on ‘em, Tampa got screwed and still prevailed.

 

Not so for the Minnesota Vikings in Chicago on Sunday. A second-half pass interference call in the end zone that resulted in first-and-goal at the one instead of loss-of-ball-on-downs, fried my shorts. By no definition — and I am reading the NFL rulebook as I write — was that pass interference. Two players fell down. Period. It cost the Vikings the football game.

 

That call was so bad, in fact, it appeared as if the fix was in. If crooked NBA ref Tim Donaghy went to jail, that whole NFL officiating crew in Chicago yesterday should have been locked up. If was as if they all had the Bears on their Vegas parlay ticket. 

 

Gawd, I can still smell that gas bomb.

 

Officiating in every sport is generally awful. Frankly, it should all be done in the booth, with video replay. 

 

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Was Game 6 of 2002 NBA Final fixed? Sure looked like it to me.

Posted on June 14, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

I sat down late last night (after returning from the monthly handicapping seminar I host at Winnipeg’s Assiniboia Downs), with no Stanley Cup or NBA final on the tube, no football and not even a decent baseball game, and watched “The Fixers.”

 

No, not the “The Fixer,” the 1968 Bernard Malamud/Dalton Trumbo epic starring Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde and Ian Holm, but The Fixers, a DVD of Game 6 of the 2002 NBA final featuring the officiating of Dick Bavetta, Ted Bernhardt and Bob Delaney.

 

This week, there has been plenty of talk about that game. It started when Tim Donaghy, the referee with the gambling problem, filed papers in the Brooklyn, N.Y., Federal Court stating that games in the 2002 and 2005 playoffs had been rigged by the Association. Since then, most major American newspapers have looked at the game again and determined — to their own benefit, of course — that the game wasn’t fixed, but as Richard Sandomir of the New York Times wrote: “What I discovered was a master class in bad calls, missed calls and miscalls that was sloppy enough to undermine the notion that it was planned ineptitude.”

 

Nice turn of phrase, but absolutely wrong. At least, from I re-watched last night.

 

No NBA official can be that bad and keep his job unless the Association told him what to do. Case in point? The Sacramento Kings were leading the series 3-2, they were at home and they were heavily favoured, but in the fourth quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers were awarded 27 free throws, scoring 16 of their final 18 points at the line to even the series, a series they went on to win at home.

 

Overall, the Lakers took 40 free throws to the Kings 25 that night and both Kings’ big men, Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard fouled out. No Lakers fouled out. Not one. After the game, Sacramento coach Rick Adelman said: “I feel sorry for our team, because they did everything they could to win the game. It’s a shame, a real shame. … Our big guys get 20 fouls, and Shaq gets four. You tell me. Obviously, they got the game called the way they wanted to get it called.”

 

Sadly, because the mainstream media is a collection of pack journalists who don’t bother to ask big questions of big executives anymore, most of them just went along their merry way, calling Adelman a crybaby. 

 

While no one in Sacramento will admit it now — because the league’s shaky integrity and commissioner David Stern’s career is on the line — the outcome of that game was painfully, yet obviously pre-determined. 

 

Here’s an example of some of the fourth-quarter miscalls…

 

1. The Kings Mike Bibby is knocked to the floor — no call.

 

2. Derek Fisher takes out two defenders to allow Kobe Bryant a clear route to the hoop for a layup — no call. 

 

3. At the end of the play there is meaningless contact from Pollard AFTER the ball is laid in. Pollard gets his fifth foul, Bryant gets a three-point play.  

 

4. Pollard fouls out on a play described by Bill Walton thusly: “Oh, that’s not a foul. I’m sorry.” Shaquille O’Neal goes to the line and makes both free throws.

 

5. With 12 seconds left, Bryant takes an inbounds pass. He runs over Bibby, elbows him in the face, drops him to the hardwood, leaves him with a bloody nose and is awarded two free throws after incidental contact by Doug Christie. It was the phoniest thing I’ve ever seen in a major professional team sport.

 

Sorry NBA, the officiating wasn’t bad that night, it was WWE-like — without the actual script. I thought it was phony at the time and now that Donaghy has said it was pre-determined, it’s hard not to agree.

 

And don’t hand me this, “He’s a convicted felon,” line. If it wasn’t wasn’t for the testimony of convicted felons, the feds would not have taken down a long list of New York, New Jersey, Detroit and Chicago mafia dons.

 

Unless somebody who still has a job talks, we’ll never really know. But frankly, the NBA is a sport I already have trouble watching without a jaundiced eye and after watching that Game 6 from 2002 again, I just can’t conclude that the Association is on the level.

 

Interestingly, the day after the game, Michael Wilbon wrote the following sentence in the Washington Post: “I have never seen officiating in a game of consequence as bad as that in Game 6.”

 

No, Michael, it wasn’t bad. It was a fix. They knew it at the time and they know it today. And this has to be the end of David Stern’s reign. 

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