No, I think it’s wrong, I just don’t think it’s a fix against small market teams, which is what you were saying at first but appear to have forgotten about. I agree there are too many fouls called and that many are called in the wrong situation, where it looks like the refs just assume there must have been contact.
I certainly think there’s some bias in NBA refereeing. I just don’t think the small-market argument makes sense. After all, Cleveland is the 17th largest market and Orlando is 19th- and if you include Tampa, which is roughly evenly split between Heat and Magic fans, it becomes a top-ten basketball media market.
I think you meant “Tapped”, not “tipped”. Nothing short of a howitzer would tip over Mr. Howard.
I am glad some people can buy that argument. I can not. When the Pistons played against Wade a couple years ago, they could not play defense. The refs gave him such crappy calls, that the Pistons quit trying. But even standing back and letting Wade in free wasn’t enough. They still blew the whistle.
In no other game are refs such a big part of the game. Even then, a good shooting day can offset the refs , but not always.
Donahue was not the only dirty ref. The NBA will not fix refs because it would amount to admitting they were fixing and some were incompetent.
I have read people who think they fix the draft. I am surprised LeBron did not go straight to New York. That happened in the past.
Small market has taken a back seat to superstars. That is who they lean toward now. But in the past ,they stretched coincidence far too much.
Right, it’s the refs’ fault the Pistons quit trying. I can’t imagine a team with Rasheed Wallace quitting for any other reason.
So you’ve been saying over and over again, but the closest thing you have to proof is ‘stars get calls,’ which was true long before Tim Donahey showed up.
This would seem to prove they DON’T fix the draft, wouldn’t it? The idea that the draft is fixed doesn’t make any more sense than anything else you’ve said here.
If you read the Simmons article ,he points out that while Donahey was busy fixing away he made hundreds of calls to other refs. When the story on him broke other refs were mentioned. You know the league had to fry Donahey to keep some degree of dwindling faith in the officials.
The LeBron draft was not fixed. The fishy ones were a few years ago. The pool is a bad idea. It should be ended and an order determined.
Donahue made calls to one other ref only. Which drafts do you think were fixed?
The fact that a sport needs a draft lottery to ensure that teams don’t throw games is kind of an indication that the whole sport is f’ed up.
There’s no secret that TEAMS will try to “fix the draft”, by tanking games, especially late in the season, to improve their draft position. Even the lottery hasn’t eliminated that problem, since it’s weighted.
Usually the cover story is about the good players being injured, or tired, and there being a lot of young players who need game time to develop.
Plus, in the NBA with only a small number of players per team, adding one player could make a huge difference. In each draft, there are usually only a handful of players who can be an immediate help. In the NFL, you don’t need to have one of the first picks to pick up a center and some help on the defensive line.