bwa's Xanga

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:58:03 GMT

what i think about Tim Donaghy's statements (Lakers-Kings 2002)

(here's the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3436401)

Now, let's just take a leap to the *moon* and assume that Donaghy is speaking the truth about the refs "fixing" game 6 of the Lakers-Kings series (he's probably just making this up now that he knows he's going to jail).

Would it surprise me if it came out that NBA refs actually do "fix" games?
Of course NOT. I think a majority intelligent NBA fans think that there is *some* crookedry among NBA refs.

Do I think (as a die hard Laker fan, mind you), that game 6 of the 2002 series was "slanted" by the refs in favor of the Lakers?
Yeah, probably. I thought so at the time (and so did the rest of the world), and I think so now.

But you know what really pi$$ed me off at the time? Sure, the refs were obviously favoring the Lakers at home in game 6 to stretch the series to game 7.

But NOBODY talks about games 2 and 5 of that same series in Sacramento. Those two games were equally as crookedly referee'd -- but in favor of Sacramento (I still have video tapes of the whole series if you wanna see for yourself).

Game 2: after the Lakers won game 1 in Sacramento, Shaq had 23 points in the middle of the 2nd quarter, and the Lakers were seemingly rolling towards a commanding 2-0 series lead, when the refs suddenly took over. Basically the refs said "nope, we're not letting you end this series early" and sent the series back to LA tied at 1-1. To this day, that game was one of the most crooked things I've ever seen, and the reporters even knew it - I remember one of the reporters was interviewing Robert Horry postgame, trying to bate him into saying something about the refs, and Horry just said, "You're trying to get me fined now."

Game 5: 20 seconds left, series tied 2-2 (this was right after the Robert Horry miracle 3 in game 4), Chris Webber with the ball, Kings down by one - keep in mind that Chris Webber may well go down as the worst clutch star in professional sports history. CWebb was obviously scared to death of the fact that he had the ball in his hands, and he started to back in on Robert Horry, then dribbled the ball off his foot, dove to the floor to try to save it, and knocked it out of bounds. Horry took a swipe at saving it but clearly missed... but the refs mystically gave the ball back to SacTown. Bibby hit the game winner on the next inbounds and the Kings led 3-2. Red Auerbach was quoted as saying that THAT was the biggest missed call of the entire playoffs. He was right.

So what pissed me off was that most Laker haters (and let's face it, there were a LOT more of them at the time than there are now, if you can believe that) didn't really pay attention to the series until game 6 - when the Lakers were facing elimination at home. So an entire nation of Laker-haters caught the ONE game out of the 7 that was ref'd in favor of the Lakers.

The avalanche of "the NBA loves LA" conspiracy theories immediately followed.

For those of you that don't follow basketball too closely, do you wanna know HOW the refs can "fix" games and go relatively under the radar?

Call fouls predominantly against one team for 3 and a half quarters. Even if they don't result in free throws, foul trouble on a star player can totally screw a team over (see: Shaq in game 2 of said 2002 series when he was on his way to a 50 point game).

That's how refs can control a game - with their whistles, obviously.

But what do the refs do to cover up a large foul/free-throw discrepancy? Once the favored team has clear control of the game, the refs will start calling a rash of quick fouls in favor of the team that they originally screwed out of a win. By calling a number of fouls when the game is late and clearly already lost, they can make the number of fouls called (and free throw attempts) appear to be within acceptable limits.

If you've watched enough basketball, you've seen it happen - time and again.

Usually when such an egregious crime occurs in an NBA playoff series, it leads to a game 7, which the refs will call fairly even. Usually the better team wins, and everybody ends up talking about how great the final game of the series was, and that's that. Nobody usually remembers anything before the final act, thus any "crooked" refereeing usually goes like water under a bridge. Perception is everything, after all.

Phil Jackson made a great statement tonight when asked about that 2002 incident:

"we all [NBA coaches] think that probably referees should be under a separate entity than the NBA entirely. I mean, that's what we'd like to see probably in the NBA. It would just be separate and apart from it. But I don't think that's going to happen."

Funniest comment I've read so far?
[Donaghy] should go to the witness protection plan, change his name and then move to seattle where nobody in the NBA would ever look for him. LOL!

. . .

Back in the early 80's, when the NBA was looking for a new commish, they considered it of high importance to hire someone with a very strong background in law. Thus they made David Stern the commissioner of the NBA.

Suppose you must take the good with the bad.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:49:46 GMT

Pao Gasol sprained his ankle 3 minutes into the most important road trip of the year.

Mbah a Moute sprained his as well, and Kevin Love hurt his back with the NCAA Tourney starting in a week.

God must've put an L.A. hater upstairs in charge of the basketball universe.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:09:34 GMT

OOOOOO
MY
GOOOODNESSSSSS~~~

YES! FINALLY! (We'll see if this finally supplants my DD-5)

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:54:17 GMT

One of the most difficult things about teaching at the high school level is that you're working primarily with kids who don't always think about the things that come out of their mouth.

. . . .

[yeah, that's both incredibly over-generic and overly-obvious...]

As one of my colleagues puts it: "Teaching is an incredibly easy job... IF you don't care about your kids."

The past two weeks have been the most trying of my [short] career, and without getting into specifics [which I can't]... it's difficult when a struggling student accuses you of *not* caring.

The concept is quite simple, and I'm sure parents deal with it in a way that is infinitely more difficult than what I face as a teacher:

When a kid asks for something that they want (but don't necessarily "deserve") but don't get it, the kid will sometimes twist the denial into a "you don't care about me!!!" type of scenario... when oftentimes, it's quite the opposite (even though it may be far from obvious to the child).

The simplicity of the idea makes it easy to understand... but incredibly difficult to deal with when you're the one accused to being "unfair" or "uncaring".

Some of the things that we, as teachers, have to internalize are just unbelievable. The verbal abuse that we can get from ALL over, and then to be expected to turn around 30 seconds later and put on a happy face for 30 teenagers and TEACH... that is one thing I haven't quite figured out yet. Just today I totally copped out on my 4th period... fortunately it was a 30 minute shortened period (thanks to TAKS) so I doubt they noticed much.

Luckily... Spring Break is just around the corner. Retreat, food, family, and more food. Oh and sleep. Lots of sleep. Sleep, come hither~

Friday, February 08, 2008

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:38:03 GMT

"Danger: YOUN"

During 3rd period today, someone that my students described as "some girl" slid this under our door. It's pretty hilarious. It's awesome. It's also a disturbing indicator that one of my students is obsessed with my last name.

Oh well, it's hanging in my classroom window now =)

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:08:53 GMT

The only thing I can compare this to is the 2004 Lakers team (Shaq Kobe Payton Malone) that tore through the season then fell short on the final step. The drama/controversy (Kobe's rape trial/Spygate) might've just caught up with them.

Whatever. The good guys won.

SOOOOOO glad that I recorded the 2nd half =)

Friday, February 01, 2008

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:05:17 GMT

TOUGH tough day of school (again, not the kids, just mental and physical exhaustion)... come home, plop into bed, to hear on sportscenter:

The Lakers got Pau Gasol!!!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:56:40 GMT

holy cow...

Federer lost =(

Monday, January 14, 2008

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:24:54 GMT

Not only did the Cowboys' and the Colts' seasons come to an end yesterday... but for the most part, so did the Lakers'. Bynum's out for 8 weeks~

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:50:00 GMT

movie night extinction

I brought my PS3 over to James Wang's place today to check out the 1080p goodness on his 56-inch DLP, and we decided to go rent a Blu-Ray movie to watch. The movie that all of us (his roommates included) REALLY wanted to see?

Resident Evil Extinction.

So we went to the Blockbuster on Wells Branch... their one copy was rented out.

Then we checked the Blockbuster on Parmer and Mopac. They were out of it too.

So we regrouped in James' living room to discuss our options. We REALLY wanted to watch something in Blu-Ray... so we bit the bullet and said: Let's go to Walmart or Target and just buy the friggin movie.

(Who cares if it costs $30, you only live once, right? By this point we'd already wasted an hour searching for the movie...)

So we hit Target first, since they listed it at $27... but guess what? They were sold out.

Our last resort was across the street at Walmart. Surely the evil Warmart empire wouldn't be sold out, would they?

(interestingly, the last time I stepped foot into that Walmart was when I waited in line this past January for a Wii and got shafted by the person in front of me)

Walmart was sold out as well.

To recap: Resident Evil Extinction was gone at TWO Blockbusters, Target, AND Walmart.

Un-frikin-believable.

So instead of enjoying the last episode of the RE Trilogy, I'm blogging about this evening's misery. UGH!