Re: NBA "justice"

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

At 01:16 PM 1/15/2002, snoopy1@pig.net wrote:
>>  Shaq has been subjected to this for many years,
>>ever since he entered the league, and probably in college, too. Listen to NBA
>>players - those who know what it's like to be on the NBA's "must-be-stopped"
>>list, like Paul Pierce - have to say to about it.
>
>The only reason Pierce gets hit as hard and as often as he does is because 
>the fouls often go uncalled.  Otherwise his prowess at the free throw line 
>makes it a low percentage play.  The last time Shaq hit free throws 
>consistently, it literally made headlines.

Shaq is probably going to get hammered whether or not he sinks free throws 
or not, unless the officials start giving out a lot more flagrant fouls. 
Usually, when the defender has a choice between giving up an uncontested 
dunk or free throws, he'll foul regardless of the shooter's FT%. The 
difference with Shaq is that he's so dominant that this happens many times 
a game, and also that he's so big that preventing him from getting a shot 
off requires a really, really hard foul. I don't think this justifies 
taking a guy's head off from behind, of course, but Shaq really does take a 
huge amount of punishment, and will even if he improves his FT%, unless the 
refs can find some sort of solution.

Alex