Cuban: NBA is rigged

[RubenDouglas]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

mav p[layers should be mad.. he's overshadowing everyones hard work. hes that attention whore everyone hates in your family...

[SoMiss2000]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

mav p[layers should be mad.. he's overshadowing everyones hard work. hes that attention whore everyone hates in your family...

give me a break, the players are used to Cuban.

[RubenDouglas]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

he's taking their thunder... thats all ive heard the past 2 days. nothing about prep work against miami.. there getting questioned non stop.

its not that its a distraction so much, but cuban is pretty selfish to be doing it at this time, when all eyes should be on the players

btw, does he have short memory or only hear what he wants? dirk has the most FT attempts in nba finals history, and shot 40ft's in one game

[Playmakers]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

mav p[layers should be mad.. he's overshadowing everyones hard work. hes that attention whore everyone hates in your family...

I'm willing to bet you every Mavs player in that locker room will back Cuban as opposed to what you might think.

The players love Cuban despite what you might think.

[Playmakers]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

By the way does anyone recall in the 90's Phil Jackson made this same type of comments?

How many guy's think Jackson is an idiot or sore loser on here?

[SoMiss2000]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

he's taking their thunder... thats all ive heard the past 2 days. nothing about prep work against miami.. there getting questioned non stop.

That's a good thing. They don't need thunder, they need to focus. You don't think that Cuban could be intentionally taking the focus off the team?

[RubenDouglas]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

he mightve attempted that but now all the players are getting asked about this incident. i dont know about you, but thats kinda distracting. instead of asking how they are preping about how to stop wade, they get asked crap.

we shall see how this has helped or hurt them

[SPTO]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

Personally I like Cuban.....for the most part.

He does go overboard at times but that's understandable when he has so much passion for his team. When was the last time you saw an owner who was geniunely a fan of his team?

The last one I can think of is Ted Turner, hell he even managed the Braves for a week or so but had to step down because MLB had a rule against it.

[Air23]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

Co-sign with SPTO. Cuban is good for the game and I like how he gives Stern sh*t.

But, dude does go too far at times.

LOL, I was just thinking--do you think the Mavs making the Finals was David Stern's worst nightmare? You KNOW the first moment something happened, Cuban was gonna be a pain in Stern's *ss.

[SoMiss2000]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

Co-sign with SPTO. Cuban is good for the game and I like how he gives Stern sh*t.

But, dude does go too far at times.

LOL, I was just thinking--do you think the Mavs making the Finals was David Stern's worst nightmare? You KNOW the first moment something happened, Cuban was gonna be a pain in Stern's *ss.

Cuban needs to evoke a 24 hour rule for himself where he's not allowed to talk the first 24 hours after a game. The thing is, Mark is a fan first and foremost and that causes him to say idiotic **** like most of us do on here. Everyone tired of whining Mavs fan, but if it were the other way around, we'd be saying the same thing about Heat fans.

I'd love to see Stern hand the Obrien trophy to Cuban...talk about a Kodak moment...lol

[Playmakers]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

Personally I like Cuban.....for the most part.

He does go overboard at times but that's understandable when he has so much passion for his team. When was the last time you saw an owner who was geniunely a fan of his team?

The last one I can think of is Ted Turner, hell he even managed the Braves for a week or so but had to step down because MLB had a rule against it.

That's what I"ve been saying all along. Most posters want Cuban to act like an typical owner. Cuban is new generation of ownership. He's not like the old school guy's he's 1st and formeost a fan before owner of the Mavs. He gets into the games jumped as pumped as a regular ol Mavs fan would during gameplay.

Cuban is great for the Mavs that's all I really care. People might hate him but if more owners showed the passion for their team and didnt' accept losing the NBA would have more competive teams. I recall before Cuban got here the Mavs were the laughing stock of the NBA. Now, they are one of the most disliked teams in the NBA.

They say when you win you become more and more disliked. I'll take that trade off any day over being in the situation as teams like New York, Boston, Minnesota and Portland.

[Pointguard]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

So the "source" of Cuban's comments is bogus and he's backed off the original reports.

Stern has said that Cuban did not say what the reporter reported.

Cuban denies it as well.

And we still have a thread becase?

[Playmakers]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

(FYI: In today's Miami Herald, Greg Cote writes that Cuban was screaming profanely at referee Joe DeRosa right after the game, "then turned to Stern and other NBA officials who were seated at the scorer's table and was overheard to shout venomously in the jubilant din, '[Bleep] you! [Bleep] you! Your league is rigged!'" Remember when I wrote that, on a scale of 1-to-10 about being excited for the moment when Stern handed Cuban the trophy, I was a 35? Now I'm a 72. Although Cuban did deny saying this on his blog.)

I tackled this in a Cowbell blog last year, but it's worth rehashing again: The NBA doesn't fix games. That's impossible. And stupid. It could never happen. (Well, except for the Hubert Davis game -- that was fixed. Just kidding. Kind of.) A few months ago, I looked David Stern in the eye and asked him about the ongoing officiating problems, and he seemed agonized enough about it that I actually believed him. Unless he was pulling a DeNiro-level acting performance on me. Which I doubt. But there are three major problems here.



First, Dwyane Wade shot as many free throws (25) as the entire Dallas team in Game 5. I just don't see how there's any way this can happen in a fairly-called game. It's theoretically impossible.



Second, everyone knew the officiating would be a problem heading into this series because of Cuban's past problems with the league. In my Finals preview, I wrote that "No team depends on the refs quite like the Heat. When the refs are calling all the bumps on Shaq and protecting Wade on every drive, they're unstoppable. When they're calling everything fairly, they're eminently beatable. If they're not getting any calls, they're just about hopeless. I could see the refs swinging two games in Miami's favor during this series, possibly three. In fact, I'm already depressed about it and the series hasn't even started yet." Well, we had our two games -- Game 3 (the last five minutes were just obscene) and Game 5 (again, a top-five debacle). And the series isn't over yet.



Third, here's a theory on referees that I described in a blog last spring:



"I don't think the NBA fixes games, but they have one trick that they use for situations like this -- when they want a home team to win the game, they invariably assign the worst referees possible to that game for two reasons: Bad referees have a tendency to get swayed by the home crowd, and bad referees never have the stones to make a tough call on the road. In a related story, I went to 35 Clippers games this year and kept a list of the referees in my pocket which I also used to follow the referees for any televised games. And yes, the referees in the NBA -- as a whole -- have never been worse. But there were six referees that stuck out as being especially terrible."



Then I went on to list the worst six referees. Here was No. 2 on the list:



"2. Bennett Salvatore -- Always one of the worst, he took it to another level this season. If you see him on the court at the start of the game, get ready for about six technicals, two near-brawls and both coaches having to be restrained by their assistants at various times."



Why is this relevant? Not only did Salvatore officiate Game 4 of the Suns-Lakers series (the one where Kobe tied it at the end of regulation and won it at the end of OT on two shaky non-calls on Nash, both by Salvatore), not only did Salvatore officiate Sunday night's Game 5 (in which Miami had a 40-12 free-throw advantage at one point), but Salvatore called the foul on Wade's final drive in overtime (remember, the call where ABC couldn't find a replay to show that anyone touched him?) even though he was standing at midcourt a full 35-40 feet from the play, and even though two other refs were closer to the play. Not only was that NOT his call, he butchered it.



Considering I brought this up LAST spring, do you find any of this a little strange? Why aren't the best referees calling these games? Why do the worst ones always seem to get assigned to games in which it would be better for the league if the home team won? Why am I the only one who notices this stuff or seems to care? Why do I find myself watching these games and concentrating more on the one-sided officiating than some of Wade's spectacular plays? As my buddy House e-mailed on Monday morning: "I don't think I can take much more of NBA refs insisting on controlling the outcomes of the most significant games. The NBA is a disgrace and should be completely embarrassed. I hate this game."



And that's coming from one of the last 19 NBA diehards -- I can only imagine what the casual fans thought after watching such a one-sided travesty. Look, we all love Dwyane Wade. He's fantastic. But there's absolutely no scenario in which a 2-guard should be attempting as many free throws as everyone on the other team. It's absolutely unfathomable. And here's what really kills me: If there's a Game 7, you KNOW they'll come up with the best possible officials for that particular game. So why wouldn't every Finals game work like that? We have seven possible games spread over 17 days ... they couldn't pick the best three or four refs and have them work every game, like how MLB picks the best seven umps to comprise the World Series crew? Why wouldn't that work? Is there a single reason you can come up with? Arrrrrrrrgh.



• My favorite "Damn, I wish I had thought of that" e-mail of the weekend, courtesy of Greg David in Philly: "Did you see Dirk heading to the locker room after Game 5 when he knocked over that exercise bike? He was totally like Karl from 'Die Hard' after Bruce Willis killed his brother."



• Finally, here's my prediction for the next two games: Dallas wins Game 6, Dallas wins Game 7, and I would absolutely not wager on either of these events because of Dwyane Wade. He's officially joined the Michael Jordan/Barry Sanders/Brett Favre "Don't ever bet against me under any circumstances" Club. Now if my mother can only figure out how to pronounce his name.



Bill Simmons is a columnist for Page 2 and ESPN The Magazine. His new book "Now I Can Die In Peace is available on Amazon.com and in bookstores everywhere.

[Sarah]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

Dirk's right hand was holding Wade's jersey which is very clear in the angle of Salvatore. It was not in the view of the other two officials. The things is, he was fouled by Harris but was not called until Dirk hold his jersey. I don't beleive it was just a simple love touch or a simple hold when Dirk's hand was clearly grabbing Wade's jersey. One can arue that it's been happening all game, but then you can't assume to get away with it all the time either.

The picture of Dirk grabbing Wade's jersey is in the "official NBA finals thread". He will not be the only one who well be getting calls like that, Lebron, Carmelo and whoever upcoming super dudes will be getting those too. If not in the middle of the game, at the crucial moment of the game.

[SoMiss2000]

Re: Cuban: NBA is rigged

Dirk's right hand was holding Wade's jersey which is very clear in the angle of Salvatore. It was not in the view of the other two officials. The things is, he was fouled by Harris but was not called until Dirk hold his jersey. I don't beleive it was just a simple love touch or a simple hold when Dirk's hand was clearly grabbing Wade's jersey. One can arue that it's been happening all game, but then you can't assume to get away with it all the time either.

The picture of Dirk grabbing Wade's jersey is in the "official NBA finals thread". He will not be the only one who well be getting calls like that, Lebron, Carmelo and whoever upcoming super dudes will be getting those too. If not in the middle of the game, at the crucial moment of the game.

He was not holding Wade's jersey. He did not push Wade. Go back and watch the video. Salvatore was at halfcourt making a horrible call. Those other two guys would not have blown the whistle even if they saw dirk's hand.