We Can’t Podcast — Please Don’t Hate
*** NOTE: There will not be a podcast this morning. JD has run himself thin and is under the weather. We’ll be back in full force with a super-duper show on Monday. ***
So, I’ll babble instead. I watched the Heat and Pacers play the 1st game of Thursday’s doubleheader and there were a few times I was furious with the officiating. It was bad. It was horrible. It was awful. It was horri-awful (O’Neal, Shaquille).
The refereeing was puzzling in the 4th quarter. With about 5 minutes left, Dwyane Wade went to the rack and his lay-in got stuck between the rim and the backboard. The referees blew the whistle and the TNT team said it would be a jump ball. Fine, that made sense. After a long discussion, the refs decided to change the call and they hit Jermaine O’Neal with a foul instead. What?! There was no whistle when Wade threw the ball up; the play was blown dead when old leather got jammed. The replay showed Fivehead trying to get out of the way – there’s no way he fouled anyone.
Now, I might be making too much of this, but this horrendous call took me back to the NBA Finals last year when Wade couldn’t get so much as a Stackhouse fingernail on him without getting a whistle. Speaking of Stack, did you see him sing the national anthem for the Lakers-Mavs game last night? He was actually pretty good. Back to the superstar call. This is something that has to be taken care of. It is so blatant that it’s become embarrassing. I don’t think the league influences the officials in any way in terms of which players should get more calls, but the big names have been getting special treatment for as long as I can remember. This superstar syndrome turns the casual fan right off. With the game being called the way it is – perimeter players allowed to move around untouched – the constant whistle blowing has to be monitored. The league can’t take away the speed and flow, the beautiful parts of the game.
That being said, the crew seemed to be having some serious problems in the 4th. When Marquis Daniels bounced it off the foot of Mourning and was called for an over-and-back when he recovered it, Doug Collins rightly pointed out the reason the ball went to the Heat was because Daniels looked guilty. We’re awarding possession of the ball due to a facial expression now? There was more. When the Pacers intentionally fouled Wade with a push to the chest an only 4 seconds left, the whistles remained silent.
Listen, I don’t think the NBA is officiated worse than any other pro sport in North America, but there are those select times when it makes me cringe. There are several factors this happens I guess – the speed of the game, all those big bodies in that small space, the difficulty referees have in seeing things all parts of the players’ bodies because of their positioning and because of the massive physiques, etc.
I bitch because I love, ya know.
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15 Responses to “We Can’t Podcast — Please Don’t Hate”
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The Basketball Jones is a NBA blog and podcast, written and recorded five times a week by J.E. Skeets, Tas Melas and Jason Doyle. Comments, questions and cold hard cash are always welcome and much appreciated. Contact us.
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I am too tired to bitch, I will just jump on your bandwagon and agree. It was downright distasteful.
Feel Better JD!
Wait, so where’s the podcast?
This is BOGUS, man.
Who was on the crew last night?
Dan Crawford, Rodney Mott (back from suspension for the obscene gesture), Jason Phillips.
I’m not exactly sure how to get through the day without hearing Skeet’s pretty voice.
I could call you if you think it would help …
I’m going to try to do the show myself…
Episode zero - eight - seven, January 19th 2007. Good morning world, here are today’s NBA headlines: Dallas rock, Indiana suck… boy, this is hard work!
And you forgot the meaningless quote off the top. Next!
“Dan Crawford”
enough said
Here’s a question: Why does a ball that gets wedged between the rim and the backboard even go to a jump-ball situation? It’s a fuckin’ missed shot! Give it to the defense.
Agreed… it should be the same as when the ball goes off the ring, over the back of the backboard.
Tas, regarding the casual fan getting turned off by superstar calls, my girlfriend (and other casual fans) can’t watch the NBA because the last two minutes of a close games takes half an hour. I think we need to reduce the number of time-outs. If the players are too dumb to run good plays on their own then bad luck.
I don’t think you can assume the defense will get the ball. It’s technically a loose ball, anyone could end up rebounding it. A shot going over the backboard is different cause it left the hands of a player and went out of bounds.
The time it takes to play the end of game is definitely the NBA’s #1 problem and Stern knows it. He talks about it all the time.
I always wondered why the ball-wedge is a dead-ball situation for dudes who are like 7 feet tall and could easily just jump up and poke/grab it out of there, but then I realized the potential for rolled ankles and other injuries when two or more dudes jump and grab at the same cubic foot of space surrounded by metal, nylon netting and glass.
Wait…the refs are helping out Dwyane Wade? That’s new…
[…] Blog: The Basketball Jones M.O.: Podcasting themselves sick… no, seriously. Since they began their “Podcast per day” plans this season, Tas and Skeets’ Canadian brand of comedy has rarely made its way into print. But like the gentle comfort of a Labatt’s-induced hangover, “The Basketball Jones” podcast is waiting every morning. Probably would have obsessed over: Alonzo Mourning, had he manned up and actually played for Toronto, that is. […]