Re: Referees

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

Nice one, mate. Personally, I take great pleasure from hearing the righteous disgust in Heinsohn's voice when he says "GIMME A BREAK". The thing is, each time they subsequently replay a ref's non-call in slow motion, it DOES seem like a legitimate foul. There is no way that a soft team like the Bulls should draw more than twice as many trips to the line as the Celtics, IMHO. That's really just too much ground to make up. If this continues, we'll have to always shoot 52% and hold opponents to 39% shooting just to have a chance to play .500 basketball. :-)

BTW, I don't think Antoine realized last year how menacing it looks to the lay person for a 6-10 young man to glare at a middle-aged referee who is generally more than twice his age and a foot or more shorter. The average Joe Blow Hironaka fan is going to be turned off by this and side with David (middle-aged ref) over a self-righteous Goliath.

As others have noted, Antoine this season is using less of a pained/outraged expression and more of a laughing "oh, c'mon ref" approach. Some of you still may find this occasionally too mocking or even menacing for your tastes (hey the guy is built like a 6-10 heavyweight boxer), but I honestly see a big improvement over last year and a natural progression towards maturity.  D.Jessen is right, though, that Antoine still acts like a baby every so often...a true 6-10 enfant terrible. He physically looks like a baby with his XXL-size head.

One way or another, AW will probably continue to get the exact opposite of superstar treatment (or should we say "luv") from the referees for several seasons longer than is normal. He also risks becoming an anti-hero like Wilt or Shaq.

Bottom line, though, is that you can fake competitiveness pretty well but you can't teach it.... that's why some (even flabby) boxers stay on their feet until the bell while others fall. Antoine always acts like he's aching to dominate a game, but has failed to do it this year according to our high standards. The thing is that 1) he clearly has the raw talent to someday consistently be the best player on an NBA court; 2) he already provides enough major non-scoring contributions to have earned the right IMO to be our designated (albeit flawed) scorer here and now. A lot of Antoine's irritating character "flaws" can be blamed on having too much, not too little, genuine, un-fakable competitiveness.

Okay, I'm going to actually go invite myself to lunch instead of writing still more posts to freaking clog everyone's bandwidth (and risk getting accused of being the Celts list "ball hog" equivalent of Ron Mercer/Antoine Walker).

Joe

p.s. Cleveland came into last night's game 1) just a half game out of the playoffs and 2) eager to keep the Celts from moving out of prime lottery position via the "steal" of a trade they made (Potapenko for a top five lotto pick). But instead of a third straight embarrassing blowout, Vitaly and the boys showed them a thing or two about Celts Pride. In a season with no legitimate highlights (the back-to-back blowouts of Orlando and Knicks?) I'm really pleased that we at least got in the "last word" against the likes of Toronto and Cleveland.

****
Jim Meninno wrote:

> >From: jmc@ptc.com
>
> >Most other refs are OK, and Tommy's just a bit paranoid.  The fact >that the Celtics take the fewest free throws of any team is largely >due to their lack of ball and player movement, which leads to few >drives to the basket, and defenders being in position rather than out >of position when the Celtics do attempt to drive, which leads to more >clean strips, and fewer fouls.
>
> I heard Tommy mention recently that, at their current pace, the Celtics will end up shooting the fewest number of free throws per game in league HISTORY.  I think that any rationalization you can come up with about not taking the ball to the hole enough falls short of explaining that.  Especially when you condsider that their faster pace produces more posessions than other teams and more opportunities to get fouled.  Personally, I think the disparity is caused because they play such aggressive defense that the referees equalize the game by allowing the other team's aggressiveness.  I used to be on the other side of this issue in the late '80s, when it was the Pistons that were hacking everybody in sight and getting away with half of the calls. I think it is just a fact of life.  If you play a very aggressive defense, the refs expect you to be able to take it from the other team too.
>
> >Another part of it is that Antoine has complained so much on every >call for his first 2+ years in the NBA that no ref wants to give him a >break, and since he's taking so many of the team's shots, that leads >to few fouls for the team.  This is Antoine's own doing, and maybe a >bit of ML Carr's doing. No rookie should be allowed by his coach to >complain to the refs at all, in the interest of saving that rookie's >reputation.
>
> I hate to say it, but it is the norm for players to complain to the refs.  Maybe the refs don't like the way Antoine does it, but it seems to me that there are very few plays in a game where some player isn't complaining.  If you listen for it you will hear "where's the foul?" , or something like that, play after play, all game long.  What gets me is that you can see it working against the Celtics, as the player who complained gets a call a minute later.  All it seems to earn the Celtics are technicals for Antione.  It's all a matter of respect, which is something the Celtics need to earn.  As soon as they can change their perception to a team that is on the rise, they will start getting more and more calls.  It also doesn't help that they have a lot of young players.  This is the thing that bothers me most about the Celtics play this year.  It is going to make it that much harder for them to establish this respect next year.  It would be much better if they could start laying!
>  the groundwork for that now, and not wait until November.  They MUST finish strong, so that the talk around the league is that they're finally turning the corner, not that their rebuilding is "in ruins".
>
> Jim
>
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