The NBA and their Crap Officiating...The Worst of any Major Sport

Alright time to get more in my wheelhouse. I love the NBA. It's the big reason I went into sports broadcasting. As a little kid I used to go to Indiana Pacer games with my dad's friend who ran the 24 second shot clock at the old Market Square Arena. I fell in love with the showbiz aspects of the NBA....the trash talk....the shear size of the players...the groupies....the media....the crowd right on top of the non stop action.

I love the "but they don't play any defense guy". I've heard that crap my whole life coming from Indiana where a 50 to 44 Bob Knight IU game was king before Reggie Miller emerged in the mid 90's. Really, they don't play any defense? That's why guys like Reggie and Glen Rice shoot lights out in college and come into the league barely breaking the 40 percent barrier before finally learning how to become two of the greatest shooters ever to lace it up.

That's why the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons have dominated here recently. Michael Jordan's Bulls destroyed teams with their length on the perimeter forcing steals...close outs out of double teams and extreme ball pressure.

I could go on and on but if you're the "they don't play any defense guy" I smile nicely at you and immediately dismiss you as someone who knows as much as basketball as I do about nuclear fusion. There's a reason its the top league in the world...and there's a reason why college and high school players are in such a hurry to get there. Sure the money, but don't think for a second the Lebron's and Kobe's of the world don't want to bring it against the very best and college did not present that obstacle for them.

If you want to criticize the NBA... point to the officials. It is a complete disgrace but give David Stern credit he is a master at promoting his league and deflecting bad PR. He is my guy if we are in the Armageddon....the earth melting and disintegrating away and Stern would figure out how to make it seem not that bad and make us all billionaires at the same time. Love the guy.

Let's recap...recently the league has had Tim Donoughy caught for admittedly fixing NBA games... over 100 games. If you think that Donoughy is the only official to ever do this in the NBA than you are the same guy that believes we never landed on the moon.

Let me remind you about Jake O'Donnell. Check him out on Wilkepedia. Let me give you the quick brief. He was basically booted from the NBA after throwing Clyde Drexler out of game 1 of the 1995 NBA playoffs. He later admitted to having a personal vendetta against Drexler.

Quote "I wouldn't give Clyde Drexler much leeway because of the way he reacted with me all the time. I thought at times he would give cheap shots to people, and I just would not allow it."

That's brutal but it was swept under the rug much like Joey Crawford and his dispute with Tim Duncan. Crawford is a guy who was labeled as a ref who had a personal feud with Duncan. Was it as bad as Trump vs. Rosie...ahhhh...maybe not ....but along that ilk.

He was disciplined for it but low and behold there was Crawford officiating game 5 in San Antonio. End of the game... series deciding play....Derek Fisher clearly fouling Brent Barry....no call. Spurs fans like Crawford about as much as we like Kim Jong Il.

"I will get Awlec Baewldwin" Sorry Team America flashback.

Now...let's dissect. I call on Reggie Miller and Charles Barkley who are more knowledgeable about the NBA than me. Their takes.

" Brent Barry is not a guy who's used to being in that position. Instead of trying to go around Fisher's contact he should have risen up right into the contact and given the ref no room to not call the foul".

True that, but I've watched every Reggie Miller game ever and no player has more 4 point plays. The guy was legendary for kicking the legs and drawing the foul from distance. What the average fan doesn't realize is Reggie was called for nearly as many offensive fouls for doing just that as four point plays.

Don't believe me check Bennett Salvatore's call on Paul Pierce in the Celtics game clinching game 6 win. 4th quarter game in the balance, Pierce elevates draws contact....offensive foul. Worst call I've seen in the playoffs but congruent with my point about getting the right call on what should be a no brainer is in the NBA a crapshoot. Ask Mark Cuban.

Keep in mind I'm a Lakers fan so I could care less... but I love the NBA's statement following the Fisher's foul.

"Derek Fisher's play on Brent Barry should have been called a foul and Barry should have had 3 free throws"

Cool statement .... I'm sure San Antonio felt really relieved in its attempt to regroup from a series crushing home loss...a loss that meant they'd have to win three straight to beat the Lakers.

The NBA had the audacity to say the call was the wrong call after the fact. It opens the debate is the foul at the end of the game, the same as in the first quarter. NO! It's not and everybody wh0 works or plays in the league knows that. But the fans don't get the NBA's garbage unknown rules like built in calls for star players and it's a shame.

The bottom line here is the NBA has a major problem in their officiating of games, but because the Lakers and Celtics are meeting the NBA finals...what everyone wants.....it will be forgotten soon.

Don't forget and don't by in if you read this blog... you know the officiating in this league has turned it more into pro wrestling than Nascar.

Don't believe me... fine... one of my friends in Palm Springs California was Ed Middleton. (working on picture of us to follow) Ed told me one time that yes there are star calls.... yes there are officials that hold grudges....yes there are dirty officials. He was not. He didn't put up with cry baby's like Rasheed Wallace. Ed was one of the good guys for sure but in our talks the info he gave me didn't make the NBA's officiating fiasco any better.

Grandpa Jones and the Sequel that Ruined the Franchise

I know you want to... but don't go see the new Indiana Jones movie. The movie is soooo bad it made me want to go home and immediately watch the previous trilogy so that I could wash away any lasting memory I had of the Crystal Skull.

I wanted to make my mind assured that there is no possible way the same people who made Indy 1.2.3 could be responsible for this lame attempt to rekindle one of the all-time action/adventure movie magic franchises.

Unfortunately, I know Spielberg and Lucas were the ones who pooped this movie out. It pains me to criticize these film making legends. It really is almost like sacrilege. They are without question unique and brilliant filmmakers who have redefined and pushed the limits of what is possible in imaginative film making.

After the opening scene of Skull I immediately flashed to the Godfather boxset that includes comments from Coppola in which he laments his disgust for how the studio pushed him in ways on Godfather 3 that he didn't want to go. Like hiring a guy to come up with the kill sequences because Francis had no interest in elaborate assassination scenes.

This point clearly illustrated in Harrison Ford's fight scene in Skull with the big Russian. Having the Red swarmed away to death by killer ants fell painfully short of the magic that we saw in Indy's fight scene with the muscled and mustachioed man in Indy 1 that ended with him chopped up by an airplane blade.

And how bout those killer ants? It was a weak Lucas influenced digital attempt at trying to summon the thrill we got when watching Indy traverse the snake pit in part 1. The thing is...those were real snakes and no computer creation can match the fear stemmed from realism that we got from that scene.

Then there was Kate Blanchett's death at the end caused by the aliens. She basically wiggles a little bit while some light flickers and then poof, disintegration. Come on, how can you sell me that crap when my lasting memory of how death should be in the Indy franchise is the German guy with the glasses melting skin to bone at the hands of the arc's powers.

I hate to say this because Harrison Ford is one of my favorites. He is without question a great action/thriller leading man. However, as good as he looks for his age and he does look good...he looks just too old to buy into the athleticism and brawn we remember Indy having. His clothes are similar in look but baggier and looser...like something an old man would wear. Indy's coolest weapon...the whip.... is hardly used in any cool fashion in the new movie. Instead we get a steady dose of Shia Lebouf's switchblade.

Then there's Karen Allen coming out of nowheresville for the respawning of the Marian character. Loved her drinking fools under the table in part 1. Loved her making it with Jeff Bridges in Starman. Loved her sleeping with Donald Sutherland in Animal House. She scared me in Crystal Skull with a face that reminded me of being at a Palm Springs benefit in which every rich lady in the room seems to have a permanent smile due to overdone plastic surgery.

I texted one of my dearest friends at the conclusion of this movie. A guy who shared that original magic that the Indy series gave us. A movie magic that made us go home and immediately run outside to play Indiana Jones for hours end with jump ropes and broom handles turned into swords.

"Please tell me you thought that movie blew?"

"Fu..... awful. It reminded of James Spader in Stargate."

While that was a funny retort I must say Stargate with Spader even in its watered down Sci fi state is at least a 2/ 2.5 star movie. The Sci fi attempt Skull makes is more on par with Killer Clowns from Outer Space.

For years we as an audience have craved the raw and authentic movie magic that the Indy franchise brought. It was different than Star Wars... way more real... but with superhero/supernatural type characteristics.

The Nicolas Cage National Treasure movies are kind of a copy cat attempt. But the closest thing to matching the excellence that the original Indy series had in my opinion is Harry Potter. I know the Half Blood Prince is next.... but how good will Deathly Hallows be? It should come way closer to imagination land movie making than the Crystal Skull did.