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Lebron Record w/ Certain Ref's
HeretoBeatmyChest
Member Posts: 4,295
66-53 in playoffs.
25-3 with Joey Crawford.
41-50 with anyone else.
25-3 with Joey Crawford.
41-50 with anyone else.
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I mean Spurs down 2-0 to OKC and in the third quarter OKC shot 22 FT's to the Spurs 0.
League clearly has an agenda.
When there are great, marketable superstars, the league will do anything in their power to get those guys on the biggest stage. It's kind of depressing, and like Tequilla said, it dilutes the product.
Then in 2008 Kobe made three straight finals, Lebron about to follow that up with four straight. Team USA is legit, league star driven, MVP's outside of Rose in 2011 were Kobe, Lebron and Durant.
League kicking ass due to those megastars. Why they fight so hard to protect Lebron, Durant, in their day Kobe, Shaq, MJ, etc.
In the 80s, you could say that the league started swallowing the whistles a bit during the '84 Finals after the McHale clothesline of Rambis. However, the Lakers pissed away Game #2 (and a 2-0 lead on the road) before running away with Game #3. That had more to do with a series where the game was decided by the players on the court and the will eventually shifted away from Showtime towards more of a physical game that Boston favored.
In '87, Bird got tossed from a game in the ECF due to fighting with Laimbeer whom the officials in today's game would have tossed at least 3-5 times a game. In the famous Game #5 where Bird stole the ball, many forget that before that play Bird got his drive to the hoop blocked and the ball was knocked off of Boston on a 50/50 call prior to that inbounds pass.
In the '88 Finals, you could try to say that the Lakers benefited in Game #6 with free throws, but it's hard to do so when looking at that Pistons team because they never gave up layups. If you were committed enough in going to the basket, you'd get to the line. Plus, in Game #7, Detroit was +8 attempts from the line on the road.
Throughout the late 80s, Jordan was tied into the Jordan rules with Detroit where he got abused but there wasn't a protection for him from the officials.
The first instance where I felt like you could look at officials influencing the outcome of a game was in the Phoenix - Seattle Game #7 in 1993. The next time I think it started becoming obvious was in the '97-'98 region with the Bulls and in particular against Utah in the Finals. Then you started seeing it happen often with the '00 - '02 Lakers, '06 Heat, etc.
Then in game 7 down by 3, the Pistons inbound the ball and the crowd literally rushed the court as time was still going on and Magic closelines Thomas to end the series.
They went over all that in a recent 30 for 30 on the Bad Boys. To just gloss over that is ridiculous.
If you look at the play (
In Game 7, Magic didn't come anywhere close to taking Thomas down with a close line. If anything, there was a trip. As for the crowd rushing the court, that was customary at the time. I'd agree that the officials should have done a better job of delaying the game and forcing the court to be clear. But again, that wasn't something that was done at the time.
The Pistons blaming the officials for losing in '88 is part of the reason why I don't think that they've ever gotten the credit that they deserve. They were a great team. But they were also full blown POS. Win the 4th quarter of Game #6 and they win the title. They got outscored by 15 in the 3rd quarter of Game #7. Handle their business and they win 3 titles in a row.
You can't bring up shady officiating and not bring up that 1988 Pistons-Lakers events that I just posted.
Oh BTW the Lakers shot 43 FT's in game 6 as well.
Ed Rush officiated that game as well as that famous Sonics game 7.
Ed Rush was also the guy who just recently resigned as head of Pac-12 refs for encouraging them to T up Sean Miller during the Pac-12 tournament. Guy is pretty fucking shady.
He was the Joey Crawford before he came along.
But if you watch the video, was Kareem bumped or not on that play? It was a foul.
I don't care about the number of free throws provided that there's a reason for it. Those Lakers teams, and in particular James Worthy, routinely attacked the basket drawing fouls.
And regarding the Sonics in '93, no question that the fouls were a huge issue in Game 7 ... but Seattle also shot 36 free throws. That series though was lost in Game 5 when Majerle hit 8 of 10 3's. That was the game that they had to win and they win that game unless Majerle didn't have the game of his life.
Just because I pointed out something that doesn't go with your conclusion doesn't mean I'm off.
I have never believe refs dictate a champion. However there has been some shady moments. The 1988 sequence was pretty shady and Ed Rush was the official in that game.
Keep thinking the 1980's had no bias officiating.
There have been instances where there were more touch fouls called (throughout a game) and instances where you could get away with bloody murder (see the '81 East Finals) without a call. But generally speaking, the calls were more often than not consistent going both ways.
I can completely understand why someone would say that Kareem shouldn't have got the call there. But it was a foul. I'd have to go back and watch that game to determine whether or not the officiating was blatantly bad. But for all of the games that I've watched of those Lakers teams, they always did a good job of attacking the basket - which tends to get you to the line more often than not.