Lebron Record w/ Certain Ref's

That's some crazy shit. No wonder Joey didn't get fired after the Duncan incident. He has way too much dirt on the NBA for him to ever be fired.

It's the thing that really sucks about the league is because you can see these things go on and it just takes away from the product. The product is really good right now ... just let it play out.

The NBA is superstar oriented. Bird and Magic showed Stern the formula. Before them, even the NBA Finals were tape delayed. The NBA wasn't shit (money wise) until Bird, Magic, and shortly thereafter Jordan.

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.

RoadDawg55 said:

The NBA is superstar oriented. Bird and Magic showed Stern the formula. Before them, even the NBA Finals were tape delayed. The NBA wasn't shit (money wise) until Bird, Magic, and shortly thereafter Jordan.

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.

The funny thing is that in the 80s not only did you have enough super stars that the league let the results play out, but even the stars weren't immune to getting their fair share of adversity thrown their way. Trying to pin point exactly when/where the league really started getting dirty with officiating is actually pretty easy.

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.