Men with the whistles....... They are the real payers!!

As much as I wanted to I couldn't watch most of the first quarter of the Spurs /Lakers game. My wife did inform me that at one time the score was Spurs 8 and Lakers 22 and then of course I sat down to watch the drama unfold.

I then listened at the end of the first quarter to Lakers coach, Phil Jackson say to the TV Commentator; " To be honest, I thought the men with the whistles changed the game" and this was little startling to me.

Phil, rarely if ever goes there in the middle of the game and even though granted that this coachtalk-direct on TV-from-sidelines-while-the-game-goes-on is a new phenomenon, he's one of the few coaches that in my opinion, speak the truth. Now I don't know if it was meant to be a strategic input so that referees would ponder over it and keep in mind so as to give make-up fouls later, or was just his observation.

Normally, I would be upset and angry if Spurs didn't get that foul call on Brent Barry as he was fouled by Fisher but I was not.

I was just happy that these pathetic, incompetent, league manipulated, bumbling bunch of idiots or as they are officially called, referees, were on National TV and exposed to the public at large. They seem to do it all the time but to be caught with your hand in the cookie jar on prime time TV is just great.

I'm just happy that next time someone opens his/her mouth to defend these bozos, they will have a real time picture to refer to.

Mind you, I'm not saying Spurs should have won. In fact, this is one of a game in a very long time that I'm not going to complain about at all. Lakers were running with the ball all through the night and they should have won anyway, just that if David Stern wants his dream of Laker/Celtic final to happen, it should be on competence and not by using his henchmen.

I just hope that more and more NBA fans will put pressure on NBA league to let the games be won or lost on merit of the players rather than being manipulated by vested interests.

Going back, I guess then its also highly likely that Celtics will win their series because apparently that;s what he wants. Sorry Pistons, your campaign is over even before it really starts. Say thank you to Stern uncle!

Reminds me of a long email exchange I had last year, with one of the key sports writers on New York Post (I think it was NYPost but could be NY Daily News), about what I felt was blatant manipulation of games by NBA referees. While I insisted that the intent of some referees was malafide, he insisted that it was incompetence. Not too many months later, the corrupt practices of Tim Donaghy came out in the open and I felt somewhat vindicated. To my surprise David Stren came out with a quick rebuttal that it was just one referee and they had taken care of the problem. I do understand that statement from PR angle but to not extend a thorough public review is unacceptable to me.

I'm sure right at this moment and through out this season, there were all kind of shenanigans going on and many people are benefiting/benefited from the corrupted results.

Hopefully, you guys can put enough pressure as fans on the league to stop it right now!