Fuck Shaq, the Lakers, the NBA and NBC

The BBQ Pit
1

I would compare the NBA to the World Wrestling Federation, but I don’t want to insult the WWF.

I’m not a fan of pro basketball. But I decided to give it a chance tonight in Game 6. I was reminded of why I’m not a fan of pro basketball.

I can’t say I’m a neutral party. I root for the underdogs and despise the big-city, big-money glamour teams in every sport.

Some observations:

– Yeah. Shaq’s one of the all-time greats. Horse shit.

This is the guy that they gave everything he wanted in Orlando, set up the personnel, coaching and offense to fit his whims. He does nothing when the Magic make the Finals, and then he leaves for La-La Land because he wants a chance at an NBA championship.

Guess the irony was lost on him.

The guy is useless outside of 9 feet from the basket. The end of game Hack-a-Shaq is an embarrasment. Can somebody explain to me why, just because you’re a 7-2, 400 lb. freak, you can’t be expected to learn how to make free throws?

– When your big market team with the NBA’s two most marketable players is in jeopardy of fucking up another one and going to a very unpredictable game 7 against a small-market, pretty-much-no-name, blue-collar bunch, whaddaya do?

Referees to the rescue!

How about those critical phantom calls on the Pacers at crunch time in the fourth quarter? First Glen Rice, nowhere near the action, goes to the line for God knows what after the Pacers get a key defensive rebound; then Kobe gets blocked cleanly, but tweet! goes the whistle. Game, set, match.

What do you expect? This league is all about big markets and big money. Remember when Patrick Ewing was coming out of Georgetown – the speculation that he could be one of the all-time greats? He didn’t go to the Clippers or the Bucks, did he? No, he fell to the New York Knicks, which was about as likely as me being struck by lightning. The biggest market team that was lacking a marquee player got one. Miracle of miracles!

– I normally respect Bob Costas. But NBC’s announcing of the game was so blatantly pro-Lakers, it made me want to vomit.

Case in point: In the fourth quarter, a Pacer hit a key three-pointer to tie it. The crowd went silent – and so did the NBC announcers.

Then the Lakers come down the court, and, upon a Laker three, all of a sudden, Mr. Costas is exclaming, “AND ROBERT HORRY ANSWERS!”

Was this bigger than the three to tie it? Gee, Bob, I don’t think you’re supposed to have a rooting interest.
How many weeks till Red Wings training camp starts?

2

I’m not a big fan of Basketball either, but I’m my city’s team won the championship. How many points did Shaq score? How many assists? How many blocks and rebounds?

3

I’m happy for the Lakers (shut-up Milo).

4

Of course, the people “celebrating” by burning police cars are fucking stupid. Dumbshits. The police should shoot them all.

5

L.A. Lakers
Fast Break Makers
Kings of the Court
Shake and Bake all Takers
Back to Back
Is a Bad-Ass Fact
A claim that remains
Intact

As true today as it was when the Chilis did it 10 years ago!

6

I realize you are just ranting Milo, but I thought it was a great game and an exciting series. Shaq is a class act who deserves all the accolades, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Shaq was the only player who showed up when the Rockets swept the Magic in '95, and he carried the Lakers on his massive back this time. Truly a dominating performance by the Big Aristotle.

7

I can understand people disrespecting the LAPD, but don’t they realize that when they go off like this, they’re just going to get more Nazi? One Jose-baggadonuts said “they were just knocking cops out of the way because they were getting in the way of the celebration”. Doesn’t seem like people were thinking at all. Sheer mob mentality.

8

I guess they’re gonna have to airlift the Pacers out of there.

9

I don’t like Shaq. Nor do I like the Pacers.

But I think that the officials do an OK job. Some bad calls in the finals? Yes. Rigged? I’m not so sure.

Bill Hunt:

The ditty is not true today. The Lakers did not win the championship last year, so the claim to back to back don’t mean jack!

10

The fact that Shaq only needs to hop a little just to make a dunk doesn’t mean he’s skilled. He’s a nice guy an’ all, but can’t he spend a few weeks practicing on his aim? I wonder… is his accuracy while peeing similar to his accuracy with free-throws? :smiley:

11

2sense wrote

Hey, when you’re a winner you don’t have to be logical!

Lakers are the team that I watch on the telly
Cause they got more moves
Than a bowl full of jelly

Stops, Pops, Drops it in,
On the way back gets a little skin
From the hand of a man named A.C. Green
Slams so hard makes your TV scream!

I hate to burst your bubble
But triple double trouble
Is coming to your town
And they’re going to make rubble.

Love that song! Love that everyone I know hates L.A. Ha ha!

12

Eh, give me Wilt Chamberlain any day of the week. Bill Russell would abuse Shaq as well. Heck, I’d watch a match-up of George Mikan in his prime versus Shaq and I would expect the goggled one to win.

Shaq is a great player, because he can dominate a game. it doesn’t matter if he only has to jump 10 inches to dunk or that he is a behemoth that Rik Smits can’t stop. He is playing with the hand he was dealt. Stanley Roberts is essentially the same size, yet he is an NBA bust that made no impact. Shaq works hard and has a will to win, which supercedes his size issues.

I don’t understand the orgasmic love that NBC feels for Kobe though. Yes, he is very good. But, I don’t see him doing naything on the court Eddie Jones doesn’t do, or Ray Allen, or Michael Finley. He just happens to play in LA and has a good look. Quit shoving him down my throat and let me just watch the game without hearing about a Jordanesque move, or his transcendant crossover, or his ability to take over a game. Just shut up and let the action speak for itself.

13

NBA = Nothing But Apathy

or is it

NBA = National Boring Association

What a pathetic waste of a sport. Here lets take a bunch of egotistical over-paid thugs and give them a league - its the NBA. The games are very fixed. The players are very concieted. I am very glad this money driven mulch is over. Who cares ? This league would be dead if not for ESPN. Mark my words - if it weren’t for that network having nothing else to report then this league would have been given the axe a long time ago. Jordan was the apex, the peak. It is all downhill from here. College basketball is so much better than this drivel it is almost sad.

So Shaq (go back to rap), Kobe (go to college) and the Lakers have one the first of their umpteen championships. Who gives a good god damn ?? Its all rather pointless.

14

I agree with what 2Sense said except for the following:

The NBA officials are worse than a joke. They’re so pathetically and blatantly obviously inept that I’m surprised that there hasn’t been some sort of congressional inquiry into games being fixed. It is simply impossible that the road teams always commit more fouls than the home team, and there are always, and I mean ** ALWAYS WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTIONS EVER ** at least a handful of phantom fouls called in every game when there was absolutely no contact whatsoever. Those despicable pinheads can call an illegal defense any time they want, and it seems that have a quota to use up. Marquee players are allowed to pummel, charge, elbow, hook, block and bash while not-so-well-knowns get whistled for eyelashes out of place.

It’s a farce. The league doesn’t seem to care that the officials are proven incorrect by replay ad nauseum. Therefore, the tacit acceptance is seen as silent approval.

Sorry, buckaroos, but the NBA ain’t a real league of competition. Nope. It’s almost always six against five, and one of the six has a whistle.

15

For the record, he’s a better defender than any of them (although he still has a tendency to get into foul trouble). He’s also 21, in his fourth year, and constantly improving. And by the way, I also happen to recall Eddie Jones playing in LA, without half the accolades that Kobe gets.

Are you out of your mind? Did you even watch the playoffs? The competition between the Lakers & Blazers, the Pacers & Knicks, and finally the Lakers & Pacers was intense (at least, much more intense than anyone expected). Teams from Indiana and Portland matched up with big-market juggernauts like LA and New York. If it’s not a league of competition, I don’t know what is.

16

The NBA is a fucking joke. How can you get excited about a league when you know damn well, before the season even begins, which team is going to win the title? Were it not for the fact that the Pacers, and not the Knicks, made the finals, I would be inclined to believe that the NBA does favor the big markets. Lord knows there’s a big-market team in the finals every year. More than coincidence?

On top of all that, the lure of NBA bucks is destroying my beloved college hoops. Now, good college players don’t stick around long enough for the fans to get to know them. I can’t say I blame them, really, but from a fan’s perspective, it sucks.

The NBA finals will never match the joy and excitement of the NCAA tournament.

17

Spoke is right.

Not just the NBA though. No league has anything that even remotely compares to the NCAA tourney for excitement.

However

When did we switch to talking about baseball??

However I am a NBA fan and more specifically a Bucks Fan. So it was a tough series as we should have beat the Pacers. But hey we are young.

Without question the referee’s pull calls out of their ass. The foul that Glen Rice ended up shooting on as mentioned by Milo was on the Pacer’s Davis. I don’t think there was any contact… at all…much less being a foul on Davis. The only legit call that could have been made would have been a loose ball foul on Rice and that would have been wrong because there was no contact!

Mullinator:
I’m a Bucks fan… Ray Allen isn’t a much better defender than the Big Dog so we’ll give Kobe that.

However I still remember Kobe’s rookie year air balls at the end of a playoff game against Utah I think it was.

18

The phantom call on Davis was really aggravating.

Rousseau…Uhhhhhh Kobe’s damn good at D, but Eddie Jones is consistently better. He has a better body for it and is smarter at cutting off the passing lanes.

The NBA is in a decline, but it was funner to watch this year than it has been in a while. At least there was some scoring ya’ know! The draft looks deep this year and there are several mega-free agents out there, so who knows…

Next year could be better.

19

You complain about media bias towards a certain team and then you ask this question? Every hockey media person in the US must have to use industrial strength Listerine to get the taste of Red Wing ass out of their mouths.

As for what you say about the NBA, couldn’t agree with you more. I watched all of 5 minutes of the whole NBA season. Basketball just sucks. Maybe if they actually played the game the way it used to be played I’d watch it again.

20

I’m perfectly happy in the fact that the egotistical prick Scotty Pippen didn’t make it to the championship.

The Jazz should have taken it. :frowning: