You know, when they started calling LeBron "King James", it didn't bother me. I really didn't care… but he's a great player so, whatever.
When he consented to the media making a big deal out of where he would play ball after his first 7 years in Cleveland, I thought the whole thing was stupid. I figured the dude never had a media day when he got to decide what college he was signing his letter of intent to attend, so maybe this replaced that moment… lol. I didn't really care… dude's a great player so, whatever.
When Dan Gilbert decided to put LBJ on blast publically with his letter, though I understood how betrayed he felt, I was on James' side. He's just like anyone else looking for a job. You examine all your options and wherever you choose to go is your prerogative. He spent 7 years there… the players around him weren't getting any better, he wanted a shot to win a championship. He'd already been in the league 7 years. If that's what he wants to do, fine. Leave him alone.
But ever since he's been in Miami, he and the rest of his teammates have been sort of reminiscent of the 90's Bulls: they got away with EVERYTHING. They foul, travel, taunt, you name it. And rarely get called for anything. Yes the big three, James, Bosh and Wade, are individually great players, but if you pay attention to their games, they never get penalized for the crap they do. But when they do, boy do they get upset. The biggest bunch of crybabies I've seen in a NBA uniform. And 50% of the time, silly make up calls follow. Go look at the tape from Wednesday night's game. It happened then. It probably happened the first 3 games the Wizards played against Miami too.
I think their announcers have gotten into it too. If you check the videos that were posted online minutes after the Wall/Ilgauskas scuffle, there's two broadcasts out there. The CSN Washington broadcast with Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier… and another clip from the local Miami broadcast, SunSports TV. The CSN broadcast, though clearly they cheer for our hometown Wizards, was the more objective of the two. They didn't deny that Wall actually threw the first punch, but they also were pointing the finger at Big Z for those elbows. If you check out the SunSports broadcast, the two announcers are all over Wall for lashing back at Ilgauskas, minimizing the contact thrown out by their center as "making some space for himself" or just a "little" push off. I didn't think a possibly accidental (jury is still out) elbow to the mouth and a clearly intentional elbow to a man's throat/face were something to be taken lightly.
James had this to say about how Maurice Evans played him:
“I don’t know if Mo Evans’ intention was to be dirty,” James said. “I watch a lot of basketball. I see a lot of basketball every day. Every time someone gets grabbed around the neck, it’s an automatic flagrant foul. If I’m wrong, tell me I’m wrong. But it seems like every time I get hit hard or a hard foul, and all I get is two shots and they take the ball out… Sometimes its unfair because of how strong I am. I can take punishment of course, but at the same time, I just feel like its unfair sometimes.”
So my question is, just how fair are the referees in officiating Heat games? Everytime I watch them, they get away with murder. Hacks, traveling, stepping on the line, you name it. But then James complains about being played physical. News flash, you're a POWER FORWARD… it’s a physical position. Didn't you read the job description before accepting it?? (just saying)
So anyway, I did a bit of research to see if there were any trends in the refs on certain games Miami plays. Here's what I found:
First off, there are 78 referees in the NBA. The officials chosen to referee games are not released until the day of the game at 9 AM on NBA.com. I'm sure the refs know at least the night before what they have to do, but that's their system. They have some "system" that's supposed to just arbitrarily decide who refs. But we don't really know that because we've never seen it. (Maybe it's kinda like NCAA random drug testing… nothing random about that; they know exactly who they're asking to pee in a cup).
Anyway, 78 refs. Out of the 78, there are 8 that have officiated less than 10 games. Each team has 82 games…. So that kinda shifts the work on the other 70 ppl. You would think it's spaced out more. Out of the 78, 59 of them have officiated Miami Heat games this season. 46 of them have officiated 3 or more games. As a matter of fact, 22 of them have done 5-7 games alone. Hmmm.
There's also a little bit of a trend in referees when any one of the big 3 (Bosh, James and Wade) have 40+ pt games. Out of those 8 games, 4 of the refs repeated. That's 24 officiating spots over 8 games, 11 of those spots were THE SAME FOUR PEOPLE. Hmmm…
Conversely, the nights when one of the big three hit their season high of 5 personal fouls (8 games), five refs had repeat officiating. 24 spots, 10 spots were the same people (36%). So the other 14 spots were just randoms. Ok.
But the games where at least one of the big 3 guys had ZERO fouls (18 games between the three of them) 42% of the refs were the same people. 54 spots, 32 of them were the same 13 referees. And only two people on the 0 foul games list show up on the 5 foul games list. Hmmmmm.
Then I did a comparison of refs on nights where big 3 had high fouls and low points. Only two refs trended: Mike Callahan and Bennie Adams.
But on nights where there were low fouls from the big 3 and 40+ points from one of them (25 games out of the 77 they've played so far), 30% of the refs were the same 13 people. 75 officiating slots: 31 of them were from the pool of the same 13 officials.
#9 – Derrick Stafford (5 Heat games this year) – 19th year as an official. 1k+ regular season games and 60+ playoff games. Worked for USPS for 10 years before all this. Known around the league for having a quick trigger for technicals.
#15 – Bennett Salvatore (4 Heat games this year) – 1400+ regular season games, 175+ playoff games and 20+ finals games. Known around the league as "the worst referee alive today"
#16 – David Guthrie (5 Heat games this year) – 3rd year ref. 
#24 – Mike "Duke" Callahan (5 Heat games this year) – almost 1k regular season games, 65+ playoff games, and 5 finals games. Known around the league for making calls and taking them back. 
#26 – Bob Delaney (4 Heat games this year) – Been officiating since 1987. Over 1300 regular season games, 120 playoff games, and 7 finals games. Formerly a cop. 
#27 – Dick Bavetta (6 Heat games this year) – Oldest ref in the league at 71 years old. Never missed an assigned game in 32 seasons. 2200+ regular season games, 230+ playoff games, and 24 finals games. Currently holds the record for most officiated games in NBA history.
#31 – Scott Wall (7 Heat games this year) – 17th year. 610 regular season games, 3 playoff games. Known at the Verizon Center for his involvement in the Andray Blatche disappearing technical foul. Wall's view of the situation was blocked, but he gave Portland the ball… initially. (Read the whole story http://www.truthaboutit.net/tag/scott-wall )
#36 – David Jones (4 Heat games this year) – 1000+ regular season games and 26 playoff games. Better known for having trained former NBA referee Tim Donaghy… same guy who testified to the FBI for betting on the NBA games he officiated. Now THAT'S class!
#46 – Matt Boland (5 Heat games this year) – 160+ regular season games. Yao Ming called him out in 2005 saying Boland "had a problem with [him] since the 2002 world championships." Great way to build a relationship!
#53 – Mark Lindsay (4 Heat games this year) – only been around for 3 years. Haven't heard too many bad things about him but he seems to keep getting teamed up with other guys on this list.
#60 – James Williams (4 Heat games this year) – worked a training program last year that resulted in his promotion as a replacement official in December. The program was aimed to phase out the old NBA refs and bring in some younger guys. He may be like Lindsay; nothing really bad on the guy, just got wrapped up with others on the list.
#63 – Derek Richardson (5 Heat games this year) – 18th year. 540+ regular season games. Was under investigation in 2007 for fixing NBA games. Often volunteers at the YMCA in LA. 
#65 – Sean Wright (4 Heat games this year) – was added in that replacement referee program last year as well. Known in the gambling sectors as a safe bet for putting money on a game to go over a certain score.Just for fun: none of these guys were officiating the final game vs the Wizards… statistically speaking, it may have been why they had a chance. A couple of the guys did show up in the prior 3 games though.
The refs in last night's game 5 vs Chicago:
#48 Scott Foster (who tended to appear in over 35% of games where the big three had season high fouls... which would explain why so many fouls were actually called on LeBron and Wade)
#8 Marc Davis (only two games during the year, but in those two the big 3 scored 78 pts and 76 pts respecitvely) ,
#57 Greg Willard (5 regular season Heat games; in a group of refs who officiated 42% of games where the big 3 got 0 fouls or 1 foul... hmmm.)
Aside from the fact that Rose pretty much choked and the Bulls' passing was horrendous, this is a hell of a combination.
I'm just sayin...
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