My letter to Dave...

[Isaac Robbins <Isaac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For what it's worth, here's what I sent to Stern, et al...  Now back to 
my regularly scheduled lurking.

Isaac

.......................................

Commissioner Stern -

Just wanted to add to what I can only guess is a flurry of 
communications regarding the conduct of Referees Corbin, Maurer and 
Wall during last nights game in Boston. I am an avid Celtics and NBA 
fan. I watched all but a handful of Boston's games during last years 
exciting run to the EC finals, and have yet to miss a game this season. 
As such, I am an obviously biased fellow when it comes to my team, and 
there have been many times when I have formed a less-than-favorable 
opinion of the officiating during a specific contest. More generally, I 
think the quality of officiating league-wide is poor, but acceptable 
when inflicted evenly on all teams. However, I am driven to register my 
disgust with you today after witnessing the truly terrible performance 
of last night's referees -- 'performance' being the key word.

With reluctance, I wonder whether the calls made against Boston -- and 
those not made against Phoenix -- were intended as retaliation for Tony 
Battie's soccer-antics earlier in the week. I hope this is not the 
case; it would be literally criminal for the league to adopt and 
endorse such a course of action. If we can rule out such a 
reprehensible possibility, then I  am forced to ponder whether these 
three gentlemen took matters into their own hands. That they called the 
game with intention and a concern for its outcome seemed clear to me. 
That they looked away when things got physically dangerous on the court 
is indisputable. I would hate for someone to get seriously hurt because 
a rogue group of referees thought they would send a message to a 
franchise. Blood and broken teeth are easily mopped up but it could 
have been much worse.

For what it is worth, I think that I am not a raving lunatic. I have 
never contacted you before about a bad game here or there, and I held 
my tongue during last year's Kings/Lakers series. But from my vantage 
point it looked serious enough that I thought I'd better say something. 
I doubt I am alone in this concern.

I simply hope that you will look into this matter and draw your own 
conclusions.

Respectfully,

Isaac Robbins