Mr. Jackson - You are Right and Wrong!

I should have clarified the title a bit more - I meant to direct it to Phil Jackson, the coach of the L.A. Lakers basketball team, but I have reasons to suspect that he doesn't read my blog yet, so we'll wait till such time as he does, nonetheless, I'm gonna say my piece for now.

So Phil felt that the game two of Celtics/Lakers final was called wrongly by the Referees - and I am with him on that, but unlike the basketball experts like Mark Kriegel who exhort Phil and Lakers to shore up their defense or play it harder - I have a simple advice

Ignore it Phil

Yup, just plain ignore it Phil,

because you and I and million other NBA fans know, that you won't be here if it was not the same Refs that brought you here in the first place.

Remember, the no call on Brent Barry by Joey Crawford in the last seconds of Spurs/Lakers game. Sure you were gracious enough to say in the post-game conference that, you thought Barry was fouled and Spurs could have won that game, but you knew it then and you know it now, that Refs are Refs - they have to do the bidding of the League as well as "protect" their personal interests.

What personal interests you ask? You didn't forget Donaghy, did ya!

As if my rantings in the past have not been enough about League a.k.a David Stern, fixing up games/results/series, Donaghy gave me a great boost today, here is what Fox Sports writes; "Court documents filed by Donaghy's lawyer detailed the "inner-workings" of a plot in which top league executives used referees to manipulate the games. Donaghy claims two referees were "company men" whose job was to extend a playoff series in 2002 to a seventh game.

The full article is here; http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8231176/Report:-Donaghy-says-refs-fixed-playoff-series

Anyways, if you are an NBA fan, you don't have to read the full article, you already know about surprising wins and losses your own teams have had all these years. You shriek with joy when they win (even though you know its not just a surprise but a big shock that your team won against a very good team) and blame the Refs when they loose (when your team was really playing their heart out) but because you have those fleeting joyous moments that kept you from saying that Refs cheated your opponents, you don't have the gumption or moral right to complain, when your team lost.

When you don't stand up for wrong things at the right time, be prepared to be wronged at all times.

I don't blame Stern much though - he has to run this league, make sure that sponsors get their money's worth (TV, Shoes, Drinks.....), keep journos happy, create "stars extraordinaire " like LeBron and others and expand NBA internationally AND all that depends on the NBA League.

All I want is that if you must manipulate games, if Golden State Warriors must lose to Utah during the season, let it be, but PULEEZZ, stay-off the Play Offs. It will be good both, for the game as well as for you in the long run. Let the real stars emerge, don't create them.

Don't give away MVP awards because someone has been playing long in the league and has not got one while a younger player deserves it, no I'm not alluding to Kobe/Paul but rather the overall design, year after year.

So Phil, just ignore the damn fouls - you know as well as I do, that you are guaranteed at least two of the three games at your home court, not because you are great and Celtics are away from their turf but because league cannot and will not let the series go down just like that. I was willing to say that you will win all 3 games but damn that Donaghy - in his statement he also mentions that league has manipulateed series in the past such that a profitable series gets extended to a 7th game, so I think David Stern as smart as he is, may not let this series to go to game 7 - it will be too obvious now. Damn! He's smart!

Sorry, the dice is already loaded and the hype about Celtics must be maintained and the sham revival of Lakers/Celtics must continue.

Based on how Celtics barely survived the earlier play-off series this year, I had marked you to win this sham series in 6 games but oops, the trophy must rotate and league wants to give it to East this year. Its not you Phil, its the money and Stern knows how to follow a good trail.

Oh Phil, another thing, I almost forgot to mention that for a change this year's finals are easy on my heart and mind and I'm not too deeply involved as a fan, so I don't care if Lakers win or Celtics carry the trophy. I'm just glad that I'm emotionally already out of the series.

About an hour is left for the game but don't worry Phil, you got at least two out of three at the home court even if your team doesn't show up or Celtics performs well.

Let the BEST TEAM (as wanted by David Stern) WIN.

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!