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I could see Stern telling refs that the Home team has to win if it goes to a game 7. Especially in the Heat's case. The only way I see Indiana winning this series vs the Heat is if they manage to win 3 of the first 4.

so how 'bout them Cavs? 1st pick with like a 15% chance of getting it! Thats what i call luck. Now they get to have a lot of young crop on their team.....and if they hold back for one more season and get a top 10 or so pick in the draft, they could be in really good shape after 2014.

You got Waitors, Noel, Kyrie, Zellar, and other young crop; that would be awesome. Good to see karma doing her job and giving back to Cavs after Lebron left.

Yeah Cavs are going to be a team to watch for the future.

Dare i say, the new OKC.

I always find stuff like this, in all honesty, a little ridiculous. I work in professional sports officiating, and I've spent a lot of time around MLB umpires. I can tell you with 100% certainty that if Bud Selig ever asked one of his umpires to rig a game, or try to influence the way a series went, most of them would probably quit on the spot. Integrity is all umpires and other officials have. I can't imagine NBA officials being much different. Not vouching for Stern, I think hes a rat bastard, but don't lump the referees in with him.

so how 'bout them Cavs? 1st pick with like a 15% chance of getting it! Thats what i call luck. Now they get to have a lot of young crop on their team.....and if they hold back for one more season and get a top 10 or so pick in the draft, they could be in really good shape after 2014.

What the Cavs really need is to be able to draft a superstar local player. I am certain that will solve all their problems.

There has been statistical research done on officiating being influenced in favor of home teams, particularly late in close games. SI ran an article in 2011 that is not online (probably because it was a book excerpt), but it's referenced here:

http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/999747/Why-do-home-teams-win.html

Lakers Kings series is all i need to say... The officials do whatever they are told to do by stern.

Integrity is all umpires and other officials have. I can't imagine NBA officials being much different.

Any complaints I've heard about MLB umpires were strictly over missed calls, blunders, etc. Can't remember serious questions of bias in MLB. By nature of the game, anything outside of balls & strikes is pretty clear cut.

While former NBA officials, commentators, coaches, & players all acknowledge bias in NBA officiating. The whole "stars get calls" thing. So-and-so hasn't "earned" that call yet...

Since you brought up baseball, the guy who recorded the Lee Elia tirade frequently talks about his conversation with a well respected, long-time NBA ref. The ref said that if Michael Jordan committed a foul & John Paxson was in the area... the foul would always go on Paxon. "Because we're in the entertainment business". That's pretty damning.

Regardless of one's position, things like this just look bad:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MhmGyZ7KF0)

Not to mention the Lakers Kings a decade ago, the whole Tim Donaghy thing, the Ewing draft, the NBA ref that used to find women for Michael Jordan after games, etc....

When Tom Thibodeau said last series, "‘‘We know how it’s going to be called." "We're not going to get calls. That's reality." I don't think he was even lobbying for calls. Just saying what he felt. Lebron James wouldn't be thrown out of a playoff game if he shoved Nazr Mohammed...

I will submit that NBA refs don't have the cleanest track record. And the "stars getting calls" thing is also supposedly prevalent in baseball (i.e. if Pujols doesn't think it's a strike, the umpires assume he's right), but thats a complete myth. I will say, though, that even in baseball, a star might get a little more leash. But I dont see anything wrong with that. Officials understand that players are there to see the players, not them, so you better be damn sure before you throw out the guy everyone paid to come see. Barry Bonds is a good example of someone who got that treatment. He had to pretty much kick an umpire in the nuts to get thrown out. However, on the flip side of that, Dwight Howard gets thrown out once a week.

As far as the video, I'm sure you know it's pretty easy to put together a montage of calls that paint a picture.

NBA officials work their whole lives up through local high school, D1 college and such to get to where they are. The idea that after they worked so hard to achieve a dream, they would be receptive to David Stern calling them up and telling them basically to be a bad official, is ludicrous to me.

Maybe I'm off-base. As I said, most of my experience is in baseball. But I just can't see it. NBA officials definitely haven't lived up to the standard of integrity set by MLB and NFL offficials, but blatant rigging still seems a bit far-fetched to me.

I'll try to keep my response short and brief.

Back in the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals, Miami did get a few questionable calls (the one I can remember most is a flagrant foul called on the Bulls with 1:44 to go). In fact, there were in some blogs that the 4th quarter (especially the last 2-3 minutes) were poorly officiated in favor of Miami.

Then again in last year NBA Finals, Miami got calls left and right in Game 2 and 4. And I know I'm not the only one who saw them, as there was much outrage and complaining on social media. Here are a few of the top of my head:

-Goaltending on Ibaka block http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbZ-Bn6Zlo
-Chalmers bumping Westbrook, and no foul
-Westbrook returns the favor, but gets called for a foul
-No call on Lebron defending Durant's shot with 10 seconds left http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA_MclW1eI4

I know there is more, and of course, there's always the Lakers-Kings series of '02, the Tim Donahey confession on 60 minutes about how he used to bet on games while he was still a ref [link=www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5914330n‎] and [link=www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5914372n‎], Game 6 of the Jazz-Bulls '98 Finals, late in the game when the Bulls were up by 2, Scottie Pippen hung on the rim‎ long enough before the Jazz put up a layup that rolled off the rim while the rim was rocking a little bit, and Bulls-Heat series this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r-SOjEN27E Just my 2 cents.

Last edited by Big Dogs at 5/23/2013 10:25:04 PM