The NBA Playoffs

[The Cid]

MOMMM!

I hope Cavs fans remember things like that when LeBron goes to the Brooklyn Nets in 2010 to hang with his buddy Jay-Z.

[Hirschof]

It isn't dark yet!

I think he will end up in a Knicks uniform.

[The Cid]

Maybe. Depends on whether Walsh can restore a little bit of respectability to the Knicks. Right now, that team's such a mess that free agents want no part of it.

[Hirschof]

I think the addition of D'antoni and a large amount of cap room ($48 mil) will allow for some big name(s) to show up soon. At the moment its probably about cleaning house (Marbury) and bringing in the support players.

[Deacon]

What's the deal with that picture? What's going on there?

[Hirschof]

In the picture James is yelling at his mom to sit down. Pierce cut off James on a drive to the basket and both of them ended up in the first row in each other's face. His mom was nearby and got up to yell at Pierce.

[Deacon]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!!!

That's BRILLIANT!

[ampersand]

A) Lebron is going ribbed for that for years. That's has to be so embarrassing.

B) Why wasn't she up in the owner's box? If it wasn't her mom but a crazed fan, the game could have easily gone out of control. I understand the appeal of basketball is the fans are so damn close, but seriously.

C) Didn't we learn anything from Indiana - Detroit brawl a couple of years ago?

[The Cid]

If it wasn't her mom but a crazed fan

Oooh, burn!

C) Didn't we learn anything from Indiana - Detroit brawl a couple of years ago?

Yes, we learned to keep Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson on different teams.

The NBA won't do anything about the crowd until someone gets killed or seriously hurt. It's too difficult to do something without decreasing the seats available for purchase in an arena (which will never happen) or changing the rules to prevent players from diving off the court to save a ball from landing out of bounds.

Besides, there's always that chance for a crazed fan but they face the same penalty that people face in any other sport when they sneak onto the field/rink/court/whatever: getting tackled, roughed up and arrested. One thing that happened after the Malice at Auburn Hills is a substantial increase in security at the arena. Big, bouncer-like mofos are going to set even some truly crazed fans straight.

[Deacon]

Sigh. Why did they let Joey Crawford lead an officiating crew against the Spurs in the playoffs? Seriously. I thought they'd shitcanned his ass finally

[Hirschof]

They can't get away from their game plan and expect to come back from that far down against the Hornets.

Pop replaced Bowen to get more offense forgetting that his best offense relies on his defense.

And why Crawford is still allowed to call Spurs games bothers me. I'm not saying the Spurs lost because of him, because they didn't, but you would think an offcial with a bad history with a team would not be allowed to officiate their games.

The whole game for both teams was poorly officiated. Worthless foul calls, missed foul calls, etc...

[The Cid]

The NBA is obsessed with letting their referees hijack games and sometimes even entire series. It's things like last night's game that make it hard for me to rule out the NBA conspiracy theorists.

...You know the ones. The guys who believe the Patrick Ewing draft lottery was rigged for the Knicks, that Michael Jordan played baseball for two years because of a secret gambling suspension, that David Stern sold out the Sonics to Oklahoma City before anyone in Seattle had a clue what was happening (oh wait--that DID happen!), and all sorts of crazy stuff stemming from the Donaghy scandal.

When guys like Joey Crawford take a starring role in games, as opposed to Chris Paul or Tim Duncan, something's wrong. It's the same reason teams insist on flopping the way so many do--basketball is a referee-heavy game.

I can't think of three football games decided by refs. I can't think of a single baseball game that was really decided by an umpire. It happens sometimes in hockey, but it's hard to tell if that's the ref's fault or if he's just calling penalties that actually HAPPEN. Yet, basketball games seem to be decided by refs at least a third of the time.

[ampersand]

The tuck rule game?

[Hirschof]

I can think of plenty of football games decided by officials but not nearly the amount that occurs in the NBA.

[The Cid]

The tuck rule game?

I WOULD say that, but tuck rule or no tuck rule Vinatieri made the most amazing field goals I've ever seen, and without those the Patriots still lost that game. So that's 66% ref, 33% best kicker of all-time.

Other football games I had in mind: The 2003 BCS Championship (Ohio State over Miami) and Super Bowl XL (Steelers-Seahawks).