Other Blogs on the Phantom Fouls
Jun/26/2006 12:01 AM | HSOs from a Bitter P1
| Permalink
Martini Republic
NBA reaches WWF levels of un-credibilty
June 20th, 2006
After deciding game 5 of the NBA finals with a disputed call at the end of the game, the referees decided to end any questions regarding the credibility of the NBA by calling a foul when Dwayne Wade(sic) appeared to throw an arm into Dirk Nowitski.
Of course, they called a foul on Nowitski. And the foul was called with less than a minute to play, and the Heat leading by one point.
To be honest, I didn’t watch most of the game. I stopped watching after the second phantom foul in Wade’s favor (where Marquis Daniels didn’t touch him on a shot). It was just a bit much after the first phantom foul (where Wade flopped untouched after making a jumper) and the play where Devin Harris was whistled after Wade dropped a shoulder into him on a drive. Even Hubie Brown was aghast.
NBADraft.net
D-Wade: The Transcendent Super-human
...it's almost tragic that the shoddy officiating will overshadow Wade's truly amazing Finals performance. I want to extend my deepest apologies to Mavericks fans. No fan-base deserves to go though what they did these past four games. I've been a proponent of the "refs don't beat you, quit your whining" perspective, but this was like enduring the Don Denkinger Game from the 1985 World Series, only four times in a row. Unless you're a Miami Heat fan or one of Dwyane Wade's relatives, this is a bad day to be an NBA fan.
Joey Love's Blues & Beyond
What a series.... NOT !
There's probably more footage in the series of bad calls then you could probably gather in the entire season. Come on... Wade himself gets to the line 25 times... more than the entire Mavs team and you don't think the calls were one sided ? I'm trying not to breathe as I write this because I'm afraid I might be called for a foul on Wade ! Was that really a foul when Wade split Dirk and Devin Harris near the end of Game 5, no... Harris has been splitting defenders all season long getting knocked around in the process with no calls and Wade slips through with minimal contact if any and gets a call. This is the frickin' NBA not 4th grade pee-wee basketball !!! Dirk gets pounded all the time... Stackhouse gets a bloody nose... no call, Mavs players flying to the floor... no calls ????
SportsBiz
Cuban Slapped with $250,000 for Truth Talking
The phantom time out and phantom foul on Dwayne(sic) Wade at the end of the last game should have enraged anyone who wasn't a Heat fan. The still inexplicable suspension of Jerry Stackhouse only set Cuban up for the tirade he had in Miami at the end of game 5. It should make for great theatre for the last two games, if there are two and for that i suppose we should thank Stern. Perhaps he should thank Cuban instead of fining him for having an owner who cares enough about the performance of his team to actually argue a call.
The Scores Report
Refs win first title
Miami 95, Dallas 92 (Heat win series, 4-2)
I’ve played basketball for more than 20 years, and one thing is certain: there is nothing more frustrating (from an opponent’s perspective) than a ref giving calls to a good player who repeatedly throws himself into a defensive player. It’s almost like the officials have an incomplete checklist. Was there contact? Check. Is the offensive player a superstar? Check. Let’s send him to the line! Only the refs are forgetting the most important question: does the offensive player create the contact? The officials gave Game 5 to the Heat when, at the end of the game, they rewarded Dwayne(sic) Wade with two free throws on a phantom foul call on Dirk Nowitzki. Fast forward to the end of Game 6, 0:26 to play, Miami leading 91-90, Wade drives the ball, throws his arm out into a retreating Nowitzki, and Wade gets the call. Sure, the Mavs had a chance to tie at the buzzer, but that foul call put Dallas in a bad, bad position.
Selling Waves
More Hate
On the plus side (upside, perhaps, in honor of everybody’s favorite spineless color man?), at least the NBA’s officials for Game 6 maintained consistency in calling fouls against the Mavericks for swiping at the ball in Dwyane Wade’s hands and completely missing everything, for standing there when Wade threw his body into someone and flipped the ball over his head, and for getting in the way of Wade’s forearm. On the down side…well, isn’t the downside pretty obvious? (And that doesn’t even get into the fact that both games 5 and 6 essentially ended on phantom foul calls; whatever happened to letting the players decide the game?)
Seize the Means
The Basketball Blogs: Part II
I'll never watch the NBA again.
I'm a fan of the game--basketball, hoops, the roundball as they say--though I'm not necessarily a fan of the Mavericks or Heat. In truth friends, I'm a Celtics fan--the Celtics who suck a big time mightily, who have driven to near suicidal--so I could give a rat's ass who wins this year's finals. For the love of Pete, just let the games be good. And let Shaq's free-throws resemble tires heaved from a truck.
Yet after watching the refs hand--HAND, I say--Game 5 to the Heat in OT, on a phantom foul that sent D-Wade (who is truly, spectacularly gifted and needs no help) to the line with less than 2 seconds left, where--swish, swish--he calmly stole the game, well...let's just say I'm f*$*& disgusted and driven to drink.
Tomorrow, not a single paper (except maybe the ones in Dallas) will run in its sports pages the headline: The Mavs Were Jobbed! Yet the Mavs were jobbed. Big time. Capital J to the O to the double B, ED. Cheated. Screwed over by the zebras, and on national TV nonetheless. I guess Jesus was out skateboarding.
Unique LIke Everybody
Can a guy get some decent officiating around here?
For everything I said about FIFA officiating, NBA officiating is much, much worse. It got bad enough that I didn't even watch the second half of last night's game.
That upsets me more than it probably should, but sports fans are by nature irrational. See, I loved these playoffs. They made me giddy. I stayed up to watch every Suns game, even when they didn't end until 2am. The Mavericks and Spurs were awesome. The Suns and Mavericks was a non-stop joyfest. Wade, LeBron, and Carmelo were all in the playoffs together for the first time. Elton Brand finally got to play on the big stage. It was amazing.
The NBA Finals destroyed all that.
Look, I love Dwyane Wade. He is my favorite player to enter the league since Allen Iverson. But the Mavericks were utterly and totally jobbed by officials protecting Wade in this series. It was a disgraceful performance by the referees.
In game six, Wade personally shot as many free throws as the Mavs. He set a new Finals record for free throw attempts, which would be one thing if it was just a rough game where everyone was fouling and people went to the line a lot. But in fact, only one team went to the line a lot. Anyone watching that game cannot honestly say that only one team was aggressive, only one team was going to the basket, only one team was playing defense with its feet. After a full season of "the new Mavs," not one announcer claimed they had reverted. So how to explain the disparity?
--30--
Wade was Treated Differently (And it Made a
Difference)
Jun/23/2006 03:37 PM | HSOs from a Bitter P1
| Permalink
Wow, Did I Touche A Nerve (Thoughts a Day Later)
Jun/22/2006 06:41 PM | HSOs from a Bitter P1
| Permalink
What a day
for my little blog...
Yesterday, I posted these clips from Game 6 of the Mavs/Heat series. And throughout the day I was inundated with hits to my site. As of this writing, more than 9,300 visted the site yesterday. To put that in some perspective, I usually get between 2,000 and 4,000 visitors in any given month.
Apparently, the main thing that happened is that several blogs linked back to this entry.
The most hits, by a factor of three, came from Gordon Keith's blog. Gordo, of the Morning Musers Show on the ticket, linked to my page early this morning, and I'm pretty sure that's what set all this off. (BTW, if you are not familiar with Gordo's, um, unusual and odd sense of humor, you might want to be careful surfing around his blog. He's a very bright guy....but strange...very, very strange...)
The second-most hits came from a sports site called Deadspin.com, which actually appears to be a really good sports blog that I'd never heard of before.
Then, after this, there seem to be ten or fifteen other blogs that have linked to this entry, adding up to 50 or 100 hits a piece.
Many of you have also left comments about this post. Thanks for that. And, believe it or not, I appreciate almost all of them. You should be aware, however, that I'm deleting anything with profanity.
My blog. My call.
But I'm leaving anything else --positive, or negative-- up there for all to see.
And I must confess to being a little surprised by the strong feelings on all sides. But, then, we are talking about sports...so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
I won't respond to all of the comments that folks have left, individually. (Or, the emails, which tend to be even more strong in tone...) I will say that I hope you got the hint from my original post that I assumed and expected that I'd be called a "whiner." Based on some of your comments, perhaps the fact that I assumed this escaped some of you. Or maybe you just really DO feeling that strongly about it.
Beyond that, I also hope you recognized that I was more than ready to blame the Mavs for much of this series loss. To refresh your memory, among other things I said:
-- Dirk didn't play well,
-- The bench was uneven
-- We couldn't sustain the amazing streaks we had now and then.
Please understand me: I am not blaming all the Mavs misfortunes on this obviously bad officiating. But, I am asking two questions and making one statement:
1) With the stakes this high, shouldn't we expect better officiating? and
2) Why are some incidents that get "missed" by the refs during a game eligible to be upgraded into suspensions and fines, while others (like missed foul calls) are not? That just seems wrong. Either the game should be called and left on the court, or anything that is "missed" by the refs should be fair game for further review or overturning.
Finally, the statement: Dwayne Wade is a tremendous player. But he's also a huge faker. He's got enough unbelievable talent that all of us who appreciate his talent deserve to have him be subject to the same rules everyone else is subject to. His play would still seem spectacular, even if the refs called fouls on him like they do everyone else.
There does seem to be a profile of an NBA star who don't get called like the rest of mere mortals do....or, conversely, who draw more than their share of fouls. As I heard one commentator mention today, what this really leads to is defenders being unable and unwilling to really play the guy tight, because they are constantly worried about being called for these phantom fouls. Wade, it seems to me, realized somewhere in game three that the refs were going to give him more leeway than others mortals. So, he started taking advantage of it...to the point that he carelessly body-checked Dirk at the end of the game.
Well, anyway, those are all my thoughts on this subject. You're free to disagree. It's a free country. But I'm absolutely convinced by the video evidence. And I'm pleased to know so many of you are too (based on your comments and emails....)
My favorite comment came late in the day from Brandon:
The nba wrote a new rule for future games.
RULE XIII. section 4.21: if you breath on, flash a glance, or mention dwyane wades name in vain you will recieve a foul.
Too funny. And too true.
Hey, thanks again for stopping by, everybody!! And if you're looking to read others kinds of controversial stuff (politics, religion, music, life...) and leave more comments, I am sure you will find plenty more to write about by snooping around my blog. Feel free. You might start with the introduction, which will tell you where to look.
If you're looking for other comments about the video clips I posted, they got hotly debated on several internet sites yesterday. And it's interesting to see how folks on other sites are commenting on this issue.
Here are some places you can read more comments:
Deadspin
Dallasbasketball.com
Bob Sturm's blog*
Mark Cuban's blog*
Lone Mavs Fan blog
Lone Star Ball
There are half a dozen more, but most seem to require registration for me to get the link for you, and I'm not that motivated.
* my post gets mentioned down in the comments section...
Yesterday, I posted these clips from Game 6 of the Mavs/Heat series. And throughout the day I was inundated with hits to my site. As of this writing, more than 9,300 visted the site yesterday. To put that in some perspective, I usually get between 2,000 and 4,000 visitors in any given month.
Apparently, the main thing that happened is that several blogs linked back to this entry.
The most hits, by a factor of three, came from Gordon Keith's blog. Gordo, of the Morning Musers Show on the ticket, linked to my page early this morning, and I'm pretty sure that's what set all this off. (BTW, if you are not familiar with Gordo's, um, unusual and odd sense of humor, you might want to be careful surfing around his blog. He's a very bright guy....but strange...very, very strange...)
The second-most hits came from a sports site called Deadspin.com, which actually appears to be a really good sports blog that I'd never heard of before.
Then, after this, there seem to be ten or fifteen other blogs that have linked to this entry, adding up to 50 or 100 hits a piece.
Many of you have also left comments about this post. Thanks for that. And, believe it or not, I appreciate almost all of them. You should be aware, however, that I'm deleting anything with profanity.
My blog. My call.
But I'm leaving anything else --positive, or negative-- up there for all to see.
And I must confess to being a little surprised by the strong feelings on all sides. But, then, we are talking about sports...so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
I won't respond to all of the comments that folks have left, individually. (Or, the emails, which tend to be even more strong in tone...) I will say that I hope you got the hint from my original post that I assumed and expected that I'd be called a "whiner." Based on some of your comments, perhaps the fact that I assumed this escaped some of you. Or maybe you just really DO feeling that strongly about it.
Beyond that, I also hope you recognized that I was more than ready to blame the Mavs for much of this series loss. To refresh your memory, among other things I said:
-- Dirk didn't play well,
-- The bench was uneven
-- We couldn't sustain the amazing streaks we had now and then.
Please understand me: I am not blaming all the Mavs misfortunes on this obviously bad officiating. But, I am asking two questions and making one statement:
1) With the stakes this high, shouldn't we expect better officiating? and
2) Why are some incidents that get "missed" by the refs during a game eligible to be upgraded into suspensions and fines, while others (like missed foul calls) are not? That just seems wrong. Either the game should be called and left on the court, or anything that is "missed" by the refs should be fair game for further review or overturning.
Finally, the statement: Dwayne Wade is a tremendous player. But he's also a huge faker. He's got enough unbelievable talent that all of us who appreciate his talent deserve to have him be subject to the same rules everyone else is subject to. His play would still seem spectacular, even if the refs called fouls on him like they do everyone else.
There does seem to be a profile of an NBA star who don't get called like the rest of mere mortals do....or, conversely, who draw more than their share of fouls. As I heard one commentator mention today, what this really leads to is defenders being unable and unwilling to really play the guy tight, because they are constantly worried about being called for these phantom fouls. Wade, it seems to me, realized somewhere in game three that the refs were going to give him more leeway than others mortals. So, he started taking advantage of it...to the point that he carelessly body-checked Dirk at the end of the game.
Well, anyway, those are all my thoughts on this subject. You're free to disagree. It's a free country. But I'm absolutely convinced by the video evidence. And I'm pleased to know so many of you are too (based on your comments and emails....)
My favorite comment came late in the day from Brandon:
The nba wrote a new rule for future games.
RULE XIII. section 4.21: if you breath on, flash a glance, or mention dwyane wades name in vain you will recieve a foul.
Too funny. And too true.
Hey, thanks again for stopping by, everybody!! And if you're looking to read others kinds of controversial stuff (politics, religion, music, life...) and leave more comments, I am sure you will find plenty more to write about by snooping around my blog. Feel free. You might start with the introduction, which will tell you where to look.
If you're looking for other comments about the video clips I posted, they got hotly debated on several internet sites yesterday. And it's interesting to see how folks on other sites are commenting on this issue.
Here are some places you can read more comments:
Deadspin
Dallasbasketball.com
Bob Sturm's blog*
Mark Cuban's blog*
Lone Mavs Fan blog
Lone Star Ball
There are half a dozen more, but most seem to require registration for me to get the link for you, and I'm not that motivated.
* my post gets mentioned down in the comments section...
--30--
Spring Valley Coffeehouse
Jun/22/2006 06:40 AM | Music News | Permalink
Spring
Valley Coffeehouse
In all the Mavs excitement, I need to remind you about the gig this Friday. I'll be returning to Spring Valley UMC for their second coffeehouse. You may remember that SVUMC was the site of the incredible Dan Fogelberg Tribute Show a few months back.
This time, I'll be headlining the show, and playing my own stuff. Josh Wilson, who happens to be both the son and nephew of several of my high school friends (I feel old), will open. We've gotten a little press in the Morning News, and that never hurts. And we'd love to see all of you.
Here's the scoop:
Spring Valley Coffeehouse
7700 Spring Valley Road
June 23 at 7 p.m. in Wesley Hall.
972-233-7671 or visit www.svumc.org
In all the Mavs excitement, I need to remind you about the gig this Friday. I'll be returning to Spring Valley UMC for their second coffeehouse. You may remember that SVUMC was the site of the incredible Dan Fogelberg Tribute Show a few months back.
This time, I'll be headlining the show, and playing my own stuff. Josh Wilson, who happens to be both the son and nephew of several of my high school friends (I feel old), will open. We've gotten a little press in the Morning News, and that never hurts. And we'd love to see all of you.
Here's the scoop:
Spring Valley Coffeehouse
7700 Spring Valley Road
June 23 at 7 p.m. in Wesley Hall.
972-233-7671 or visit www.svumc.org
--30--
Final Score: Mavs 92 Heat 88 (Or that's what it
should have been, and here's the video to prove it)
Jun/21/2006 05:44 AM | HSOs from a Bitter P1
| Permalink
Update,
June 23:
OK...another update....
Due to the high traffic caused by these clips, I've moved them over to youtube.com. You can still get to them by clicking on the links below, as before, but you'll be redirected to the clip at youtube. We're just getting dangerously close to our bandwidth capacity for the month, and even with this we may still go over.
youtube.com seems to enlarge the image, which denigrates the quality. But you can rescale it back down to the appropriate size without too much trouble. If you have any trouble getting the video from the individual links, you can find all five clips here .
--------------------------------------------
Three responses to my original post:
My response to your comments here.
The stats for the Finals support the video evidence here. (Wade was treated differently)
Other bloggers agree: Wade was treated differently here.
My final comments on this issue here.
Original post:
Nobody likes a sore loser. And the truth is, the Mavs could have played much better in game six. The bench was way more uneven than it should have been. No question. Dirk could have been more consistent. And, for some reason, we couldn't sustain our hot streaks from the field.
Yes, nobody likes a sore loser. But as I said earlier tonight, Dwyane Wade is the greatest actor since Marlon Brando, and I've got the video evidence to prove it. He has a remarkable ability to get the refs to call fouls in his favor, when no fouls actually exist.
And, in a game when the stakes are this high, pointing this out is not being a sore loser. It's just demanding that the officiating be fairer and more honest when the stakes are this high and the teams this even.
I'll opine about this more later...but let's go to the clips....
The following clearly shows FIVE --count them, five-- phantom fouls that Wade got to break his way, resulting in SEVEN free throw points for the Heat.
Phantom Foul 1: Wade and Jason Terry (48 seconds left in the first)
Wade goes left, shoots the jumper. Fine. But then, watch as he dramatically collapses backwards, as if Terry hit him with a hammer. Watch for the second slower motion close-up that clearly shows no contact between the two...and dramatically shows Wade's fake fall.
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 1 point
Phantom Foul 2: Wade and Devon Harris (16 seconds left in the first)
Less than a minute later, we find phantom foul number two. This time, Wade charges in on Harris, and clearly elbows him. When they saw Harris' reaction to the call, both of the ABC announcers said, and I quote, "Harris has a legitimate beef."
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 2 points
Phantom Foul 3: Wade and Marquis Daniel (2:14 left, second quarter)
Watch as Wade drives on Daniel (number 6) and scores without Daniel ever touching him. The second and third show motion replays show the lack of contact even more clearly.
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 1 point
Phantom Foul 4: Wade and Marquis Daniel (8 seconds left in the third)
This one comes not on a shot, but on a rebound attempt. The three is attempted from crosscourt, and Wade goes up for the rebound. It's his own momentum that throws him out of bounds...but watch again his great acting skills, as he makes it seem that Daniel pushed him.
New information! A reader today encouraged me to look at what happens at the top of the court, once Posey takes the shot. And what happens is amazing. Posey clearly trips Dirk and sends him into the stands. Even if you say that their legs just got tangled, there's a point at which Posey is clearly tripping Dirk.
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 1 point
Phantom Foul 5: Wade and Dirk Nowitski (28 seconds left in the game)
This one, the crowd really reacted to. Wade drives on Dirk, and clearly body checks him with his right arm. It's not even a matter of whether or not Dirk was moving, or was set...it's WADE who crashes into Dirk.
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 2 points
Total phantom points:
Seven
Real final score:
Dallas: 92
Miami: 88
Nobody likes a sore loser. But it's not sore losing to point out such ridiculously obvious calls. And, officiating has clearly been such a key part of this game. When Jason Terry punched Michael Finley, the league had no problem going back and reversing the call on the field, and suspending Terry. When Jerry Stackhouse hit Shaq hard in game five, they had no problem doing exactly the same thing to Stack.
So why is it that THOSE kind of plays are reviewable and have the consequence of a suspension, but THESE bogus foul calls are allowed to stand when the consequence is a bogus championship?
That makes no sense at all.
I'm sorry, it's not being a whiner to say the Mavs were robbed.
Because we were.
l
Due to the high traffic caused by these clips, I've moved them over to youtube.com. You can still get to them by clicking on the links below, as before, but you'll be redirected to the clip at youtube. We're just getting dangerously close to our bandwidth capacity for the month, and even with this we may still go over.
youtube.com seems to enlarge the image, which denigrates the quality. But you can rescale it back down to the appropriate size without too much trouble. If you have any trouble getting the video from the individual links, you can find all five clips here .
--------------------------------------------
Three responses to my original post:
My response to your comments here.
The stats for the Finals support the video evidence here. (Wade was treated differently)
Other bloggers agree: Wade was treated differently here.
My final comments on this issue here.
Original post:
Nobody likes a sore loser. And the truth is, the Mavs could have played much better in game six. The bench was way more uneven than it should have been. No question. Dirk could have been more consistent. And, for some reason, we couldn't sustain our hot streaks from the field.
Yes, nobody likes a sore loser. But as I said earlier tonight, Dwyane Wade is the greatest actor since Marlon Brando, and I've got the video evidence to prove it. He has a remarkable ability to get the refs to call fouls in his favor, when no fouls actually exist.
And, in a game when the stakes are this high, pointing this out is not being a sore loser. It's just demanding that the officiating be fairer and more honest when the stakes are this high and the teams this even.
I'll opine about this more later...but let's go to the clips....
The following clearly shows FIVE --count them, five-- phantom fouls that Wade got to break his way, resulting in SEVEN free throw points for the Heat.
Phantom Foul 1: Wade and Jason Terry (48 seconds left in the first)
Wade goes left, shoots the jumper. Fine. But then, watch as he dramatically collapses backwards, as if Terry hit him with a hammer. Watch for the second slower motion close-up that clearly shows no contact between the two...and dramatically shows Wade's fake fall.
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 1 point
Phantom Foul 2: Wade and Devon Harris (16 seconds left in the first)
Less than a minute later, we find phantom foul number two. This time, Wade charges in on Harris, and clearly elbows him. When they saw Harris' reaction to the call, both of the ABC announcers said, and I quote, "Harris has a legitimate beef."
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 2 points
Phantom Foul 3: Wade and Marquis Daniel (2:14 left, second quarter)
Watch as Wade drives on Daniel (number 6) and scores without Daniel ever touching him. The second and third show motion replays show the lack of contact even more clearly.
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 1 point
Phantom Foul 4: Wade and Marquis Daniel (8 seconds left in the third)
This one comes not on a shot, but on a rebound attempt. The three is attempted from crosscourt, and Wade goes up for the rebound. It's his own momentum that throws him out of bounds...but watch again his great acting skills, as he makes it seem that Daniel pushed him.
New information! A reader today encouraged me to look at what happens at the top of the court, once Posey takes the shot. And what happens is amazing. Posey clearly trips Dirk and sends him into the stands. Even if you say that their legs just got tangled, there's a point at which Posey is clearly tripping Dirk.
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 1 point
Phantom Foul 5: Wade and Dirk Nowitski (28 seconds left in the game)
This one, the crowd really reacted to. Wade drives on Dirk, and clearly body checks him with his right arm. It's not even a matter of whether or not Dirk was moving, or was set...it's WADE who crashes into Dirk.
Free throws made off this phantom foul: 2 points
Total phantom points:
Seven
Real final score:
Dallas: 92
Miami: 88
Nobody likes a sore loser. But it's not sore losing to point out such ridiculously obvious calls. And, officiating has clearly been such a key part of this game. When Jason Terry punched Michael Finley, the league had no problem going back and reversing the call on the field, and suspending Terry. When Jerry Stackhouse hit Shaq hard in game five, they had no problem doing exactly the same thing to Stack.
So why is it that THOSE kind of plays are reviewable and have the consequence of a suspension, but THESE bogus foul calls are allowed to stand when the consequence is a bogus championship?
That makes no sense at all.
I'm sorry, it's not being a whiner to say the Mavs were robbed.
Because we were.
l
We Were Robbed
Jun/20/2006 11:20 PM | HSOs from a Bitter P1
| Permalink
The NBA
finals have just ended. And the Mavericks were
robbed.
I know, you expect a fan like me to say such things. But it's absolutely true. Dennise and I counted no less than four times when Dwyane Wade drew "phantom fouls" from Maverick players. I'm talking four times when the Mav players didn't even TOUCH him. It wasn't even close. How the officials missed it all is beyond me. But if I can find the video camera, I'll happily digitize and post the evidence later this week.
By our count that's four points, at least, that the Heat shouldn't have had on the board. So, the Mavs win by one.
What's incredibly frustrating is that not one time did the play-by-play guys draw any attention to this....even when they showed the replays, and the replays clearly showed no contact.
Dwyane Wade is a great player. But he's also an very good actor.
And we should be playing game seven on Thursday.
I know, you expect a fan like me to say such things. But it's absolutely true. Dennise and I counted no less than four times when Dwyane Wade drew "phantom fouls" from Maverick players. I'm talking four times when the Mav players didn't even TOUCH him. It wasn't even close. How the officials missed it all is beyond me. But if I can find the video camera, I'll happily digitize and post the evidence later this week.
By our count that's four points, at least, that the Heat shouldn't have had on the board. So, the Mavs win by one.
What's incredibly frustrating is that not one time did the play-by-play guys draw any attention to this....even when they showed the replays, and the replays clearly showed no contact.
Dwyane Wade is a great player. But he's also an very good actor.
And we should be playing game seven on Thursday.
--30--
Finals
Jun/10/2006 09:48 PM | HSOs from a Bitter P1
| Permalink
I know I said
no more entries until mid-June. However, I THINK I've
got the iBlog situation taken care of. And, by
mid-June, the NBA Finals will be mostly over and I'll
have lost my one chance to lay down my prediction.
Since I've been doing so well in my predictions so far this (NCAA National Championship, Super Bowl) why miss out on the chance to weigh in one this...especically since it involves my Dallas Mavericks.
So, with one game already down, here's how I now see this series unfolding....
-- Miami has Shaq and Wade.
-- Dallas had Dirk and nine other incredible players
-- Contain Shaq and Wade, you shut Miami down
-- Contain Dirk, there are nine other guys that will kill you
-- Shaq can't shoot free throws and neither can his team.
-- Dallas excels at them.
Prediction (and I know this will stun some):
Dallas wins in five games.
I just don't seem Miami being able to contain Dallas. Dallas will adjust to whatever Miami throws out there. Miami can't. Dallas is still being under-rated as the old "soft" team they used to be.
Dallas wins game two. Dallas loses one in Miami.
And that'll be it.
Since I've been doing so well in my predictions so far this (NCAA National Championship, Super Bowl) why miss out on the chance to weigh in one this...especically since it involves my Dallas Mavericks.
So, with one game already down, here's how I now see this series unfolding....
-- Miami has Shaq and Wade.
-- Dallas had Dirk and nine other incredible players
-- Contain Shaq and Wade, you shut Miami down
-- Contain Dirk, there are nine other guys that will kill you
-- Shaq can't shoot free throws and neither can his team.
-- Dallas excels at them.
Prediction (and I know this will stun some):
Dallas wins in five games.
I just don't seem Miami being able to contain Dallas. Dallas will adjust to whatever Miami throws out there. Miami can't. Dallas is still being under-rated as the old "soft" team they used to be.
Dallas wins game two. Dallas loses one in Miami.
And that'll be it.
--30--