Re:Officials

[Boston Sports Fan <bostonsptsfan@yahoo.com>]

The officiating is maddening, I gotta say. For the
longest time I've been wondering if I'm just seeing
through kelly-tinted glasses, or if Tommy's protests
over every single call were just having an osmosis
affect of my view of the officials, but I've come to
the conclusion that we are getting jobbed, no two ways
about it. I still haven't figured out why. Yes, it's a
young team with no star capable of getting a call from
any official when he needs it the most, yes, it's a
team who the last few years has probably argued and
whined, and annoyed the officals more than the average
team. But this year is different. I think Antoine has
been exemplary in his dealings with the officials--for
the most part, and who can blame him if he does flip
his lid a few times with the crap that goes on out
there? Who of us hasn't? The last two nights, I've
been a lunatic in my living room, jumping up and
throwing the remote as hard as I could into the coach
cushins. If I had been seated at courtside, I'd have
been dragged out by security for assualting an
official. (Just as a side note---Every one who knows
me marvels at how "even-keeled" I am. I don't allow
many people to watch C's games with me to protect my
reputation.) The other guys on the team seem to deal
with the officials pretty respectfully as well. Why
can't they get calls or respect? The below example of
Alonzo last night is perfect. He lowered his shoulder
and bowled over Battie, who was just playing him
straight up, no hands on him, and Tony got knocked to
the floor, and was called for the foul, On the replays
of that play, you had a great shot of Antoine in the
background and you could just see the frustration on
his face, yet he never said a word, on another
instance, Kenny drove to the hoop, might've tried to
hold of Brown or whoever with an arm, certainly took
the worse of the collision, and Kenny was called for
the offensive foul. You think if that had been
Hardaway driving on Fortson/Battie, it would have been
called that way? No. 

All year this crap has been going on. I'm wondering if
the tide is ever going to turn. I don't know what's
worse or more frustrating, watching the officials take
games away from the C's or reading 2-bit hacks like
May, Holley and D'Alessandro take cheap shots at
Antoine. Pitino and the rest of the guys. The Booing
of Antoine last night had me in amazment too. 35
points, 47 minutes in the 2nd game of a back-to-back
situation, against 2 of the best teams in the East,
and he not entitled to get a little tired at the end?
I admire Pitino for so vigorously defending 'Toine
after the game...and then this morning I read Holley
spewing that they can't get along and that the
Pitino-Walker marriage needs a divorce. From what I
see, Pitino and Walker have a pretty good
relationship. How come nobody wrote like this about
the Bird-Rodgers relationship? Or Bird-Ford? (and NO
I'm not comparing Walker to Bird, I'm making the point
of Coach-Star relationships)

*sigh* all this ranting and I don't even feel better
yet....




Heh.  If you thought the officials from last night
were bad, believe it or
not they got worse.

What's worse than watching Reggie Miller flop all over
the court?

Watching Alonzo "Bull in a China Shop" Mourning run
through anyone in his
way and have the foul called on his defender.

A tip of the hat to the Celtics though -- the Heat
made a run at the
beginning of the third quarter and looked like they
were going to put away
the game, but the Celtics fought back and nearly came
away with the win.

If you didn't see it, the C's were down by two with
seconds to go.  Paul
Pierce missed a 20 foot jumper, the rebound came to
the C's (Griffin?) and
he kicked it out to Antoine.  'Toine had an
uncontested 18 footer, but
took two steps back to the three point line and went
for the win.  He
missed.  Gutsy shot if he makes it, stupid if he
misses.  Sorry 'Toine --
you got the goat horns tonight.

Fortson watch:  He played a lot in the first half and
didn't contribute
much statisticly but really helped contain Mourning on
defense.  I don't
think he played at all in the second half, which was
very disappointing.

I didn't think Rick did a very good job at the start
of the third quarter
when the Heat went on a 16-2 run.  Seems like he
should have snuck in at
least one more timeout to try and stop the bleeding. 
The Celtics just
went dead on offense and the Rickster pretty much hung
them out to dry.

Again, it's a miracle the C's were in it at all, given
the extra help the
Heat had with the officials.  Mourning just banged the
crap out of his
defender repeatedly with no calls.  Potapenko, while
guarding Mourning in
the post, went around him cleanly and tipped away an
entry pass and was
called for a foul.  The Celtics had two three seconds
calls on them and
the Heat had none, despite Mourning's typical setting
up of camp in the
lane.  What was even more strange about that was that
Mourning was
typically gaining a huge advantage by being in the
paint as long as he
wanted, while one of the calls against the C's was
Griffin in the paint
about twelve feet from the basket, out of the play.  I
mean, the C's were
even gaining an advantage when they were in the lane
more than three
seconds, yet they still got called for it!

I hope Pitino can keep spirits up.  They really
deserved to win both of
these past two games.

Dan

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com