Lots of great NBA action in the past two days, and even more horrible calls. I’m usually not one to complain, but things have gotten out of control. Ron Artest is ejected (again!) for a straight up hard foul. In the end, the league decided to reduce it to a flagrant one…come on. He deserved to have it recinded, but they didn’t want to embarass the refs. That’s fucked up; he becomes the scapegoat because of his past history. To be fair, even in that incident, the fans acted as a catalst for the violence by provoking him. His fault is not backing down, but he has learned to control himself (although he does get heated) and not blow up. Ron knows what is going on and refers to it as ‘past history profiling’. At least the guy has a sense of humor about it.
In second bad call, or non-call in this case, they miss an intentional foul at the end of the Mavs/Nuggets game that gives C-Melo enough time to jack up a three and take a one point advantage. At least in this case, the NBA had the balls to fess up to the mistake and issued this statement:
“At the end of the Dallas-Denver game this evening, the officials missed an intentional foul committed by Antoine Wright on Carmelo Anthony, just prior to Anthony’s 3-point basket.”
Weak. Let’s hope things turn around and the refs start getting the calls right. NBA refs are the best in the world (I know you hear that cliche all the time, but it’s true) and need to show it. Next up: Lakers @ Rockets tomorrow 12:30pm on ABC