Comments on: Getting Ready For Game Three

By: D

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:43:24 +0000

Star power is actually what’s killing it – the advertising revenue these players bring in is the motivation for influencing outcomes and extending series in the first place.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:13:16 +0000

To be fair to Butch, he claimed that he said on the air that he had a call from someone who claimed that they saw Bonds and that he was checking into it with people at Fenway. He never reported it as a fact, but he still should have never aired what he had heard.

By: crimedoesntpay

crimedoesntpay — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:03:00 +0000

Let’s see how long or if Sen. Spectator will take action and shine the light on the NBA for fixing games during the actual games. This bum Stern should be thrown into jail, there is no doubt the NBA referees have been in the tank, manipulated by their top management, all for ratings, tickets, ad money. The NBA is a pathetic product and tainted. I want names and justice. Let’s go Spector you slimy weasle.

By: Classless Concepts

Classless Concepts — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:02:56 +0000

If I didn’t love the game of Basketball so much and, of course, the Celtics, I would ditch the NBA much like I ditched the NHL. Referees have nearly killed the integrity of this sport. Just imagine officials calling the game one way in the NFL, then the next game switching to the other extreme. The only thing keeping it alive is the absurd star power of Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, etc.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:56:08 +0000

My name is Andrew and I am a recovering NBA fan. I even put forth a failed effort to jump on the Celtic’s bandwagon this season. I tried but I just couldn’t stomach it.

The officiating is absurd to the point that I don’t really know what the rules of NBA basketball are. How many steps constitute a travel? Are three steps actually legal or is it just an ignored infraction? What constitutes an NBA foul? I can watch a college game and differentiate between a good call and a bad one, and there are far more of the former than the latter. In an NBA game, for the most part I can’t differentiate between the good calls and bad because I don’t know what rulebook they use. I’m pretty sure that it isn’t a rulebook in any traditional basketball sense.

I wish the Celtics well because I was once a fan and they are the local team, but the whole package is just too WWF for me.

By: Siggy

Siggy — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:18:44 +0000

Is anyone else fed up with Cedric Maxwell’s appearances on the Big Show? Max plays the fool willingly, takes all the interminable ‘you hate Larry Bird’ comments from Glenn and any other two-bit Mazz on the show, mangles the language Smerlas-style, and doesn’t really add anything in terms of analysis.

I don’t think he’s really like that. He was a hard-nosed intelligent player who’s now somehow put himself in a box where he has to play the role of clown. Sad.

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:50:41 +0000

Joey Crawford has a reputation that he is biased in favor of the road team. It goes to his tough guy persona he likes to portray – he’s not intimidated by the home crowd and he’ll prove it.

Obviously it doesn’t fit in with the NBA is going to stick it to the Celtics whining that Bruce and others are doing before the game is even played so we’ll ignore that one.

After the home cooking the Celtics got on Sunday night from the refs it is a bit ridiculous to whine about game 3’s calls before they even happen.

By: Beantown

Beantown — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:27:11 +0000

I agree completely with DaveR. It’s not significant that the refs will be huge tonight or that the Lakers will be getting all the calls. That’s a given. The fact that it’s universally assumed that tonight’s game will be refereed very differently than game 2 is what’s astounding. Just because it’s in LA that means it will be called differently? How is that possible. Just because last game the c’s got fouled alot, that means it’s a given that the lakers will get fouled a lot this game? So all of a sudden fouls are based on memory. What happened before impacts what happens now? It’s amazing, not that it happens, but that everyone expects it to happen.

By: DaveR

DaveR — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:22:23 +0000

Perception?

It’s a fact that referees determine the outcome of the game. Unless you want to argue that there’s actual consistency in officiating in the NBA. Which would be silly to even attempt, as it’s a trivial matter to take any two NBA games officiated by different crews (or, sometimes, by the SAME crew) and illustrate how identical acts are called differently in each.

It boggles my mind that people accept this in a major professional sport. What do you think would happen if an umpire decided that any pitch within 4′ of the plate was a strike for Josh Beckett, but not for the other team, and made OBVIOUSLY bad ball/strike calls in that direction? There’d be a firestorm that would put Spygate to shame. Yet that happens almost on a daily basis in the NBA, and has for the entire Stern tenure. I like Stern quite a bit — especially his acerbic wit — but this aspect of the NBA is shameful and inexcusable, and his inability and/or unwillingness to do anything about it is ridiculous.

/rant off

By: DUKE

DUKE — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:19:03 +0000

Butch you better check your facts before you go on the air. All you had to do was call MeterParel’s dad-he could have told you that! LOL.