A place to vent about officiating...

[LOTBfan]

On Canzano's suggestion, I found a place to email the NBA about my disappointment of their solution of the labor issues the referees are going through.

If you are angry, this may not be a productive way to vent, but it seems it is the only official way to do so.

"I have been a season ticket holder for 5 years with the Portland Trail Blazers, and in 5 years I have not once left a game before the final horn. Last night I was compelled to leave at half time because the game was running so long due to unnecessary whistle blowing by completely inept officiating. I was frustrated, irate, and felt cheated and ripped off.

Based on the last 3 games with your stand in referees, at this point I am going to begin boycotting the NBA, will not be subscribing to NBATV, will not be buying any branded merchandise including the hundreds of dollars of apparel and video games I usually buy annually, and will be leaving my seats open so that you lose advertising revenue until the referee issue is addressed. Additionally I am sharing this email and my displeasure with my coworkers, local fan message boards, and my family in an attempt to reduce paying customers and thus your revenue as much as possible.

With absolutely no visible oversight of the officials by the Association, exorbitant fines of coaches (Van Gundy) for speaking out about the officials you are forcing the teams to play with, and a complete lack of confidence that you are working to pay proper officials what they deserve has utterly ruined what has been a life long passion for my family and myself.

Fix this now, lower my ticket prices for what is now a near unwatchable product, or lose me forever as a fan and revenue source.

I have NEVER been this disappointed by a product I have spent this much money on loyally year after year, EVER.

Angered Fan
Lake Oswego, Oregon"

 

[Paxil]

It is painfully evident how much officiating impacts that game. I wish it were not so... but basketball has to be one of the most impacted sports other than the ones that are entirely judged like skating etc... I didn't see the game last night but from what I heard on the radio there were some crazy calls.

 

[LOTBfan]

Forgot the link, here it is

http://www.nba.com/email_us/contact_us.html

 

[Sug]

Here is my letter:

When assessing the NBA's tractates, one need not resort to vicious name-calling or opprobrious epithets. One need only present the facts. First and foremost, history teaches us that to ignore or dismiss organizations like the NBA simply as feral, drossy blockheads can have devastating consequences. Why do I tell you this? Because these days, no one else has the guts to. There are two related questions in this matter. The first is to what extent the NBA has tried to force some to live by restrictive standards not applicable to others. The other is whether or not the NBA may have access to weapons of mass destruction. Then again, I, speaking as someone who is not a foul-mouthed geek, consider it to be a weapon of mass destruction itself.

I've known some serpents who were impressively negligent. However, the NBA is uneducated and that trumps negligent every time. A word to the wise: I'd peg the odds at about six to one that the NBA will lead me down a path of pain and suffering sooner or later. If I'm wrong, I promise that I'll gladly crawl under a rock and die. Nice try to push the State towards greater influence, self-preservation, and totalitarianism and away from civic engagement, constituent choice, and independent thought, the NBA. As you can see, it would be great if we could shoo away the NBA like the annoying bug that it is. Still, if we take a step, just a step, towards addressing the issue of authoritarianism, then maybe we can open people's eyes (including our own) to a vision of how to put to rest the animosities that have kept various groups of people from enjoying anything other than superficial unity. When you reflect upon this, you'll realize that the NBA labels anyone it doesn't like as "untoward". That might well be a better description of it.

The NBA certainly yearns for the Oriental despotisms of pre-Hellenic times, the neolithic culture that preceded the rise of self-consciousness and egoism. By the same token, it abhors the current era, in which people are free to shelter initially unpopular truths from suppression, enabling them to ultimately win out through competition in the marketplace of ideas. If I may be permitted to make an observation, we are at war. Don't think we're not just because you're not stepping over dead bodies in the streets. We're at war with the NBA's splenetic philosophies. We're at war with its unambitious tracts. And we're at war with its wrongheaded plans for the future. As in any war, we ought to be aware of the fact that the NBA is morally irresponsible and mentally feeble. But I digress. The NBA frequently writes self-contradictory, nonsensical "sentences" that are actually just phrases or sentence fragments filled with grammatical, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors. Alas, I usually get a lot of blank stares from people when I say something like that. What I mean is that the NBA's grievances are counterproductive to society. Sad, but true. And it'll only get worse if the NBA finds a way to develop mind-control technology.

Let us postulate that the NBA is definitely speaking through its hat when it says that a richly evocative description of a problem automatically implies the correct solution to that problem. In that case, every so often, it tries challenging all I stand for. Whenever it gets caught doing so it raises a terrific hullabaloo calculated to replace love and understanding with militarism and despotism. The NBA says it's going to exercise both subtlety and thoroughness in managing both the news and the entertainment that gets presented to us before you know it. Good old the NBA. It just loves to open its mouth and let all kinds of things come out without listening to how wretched they sound.

It is never easy to judge what the most appropriate or effective response to the NBA's disagreeable indiscretions is but one unfortunate fact remains clear: I want to do something good for others. That may seem simple enough, but somebody has to fight the warped, distorted, misshapen, unwholesome monstrosity that the NBA's fusillades have become. That somebody can be you. In any case, the NBA's victims have been speaking out for years. Unfortunately, their voices have long been silenced by the roar and thunder of the NBA's devotees, who loudly proclaim that genocide, slavery, racism, and the systematic oppression, degradation, and exploitation of most of the world's people are all thoroughly justified. Regardless of those thrasonical proclamations, the truth is that it presents one face to the public, a face that tells people what they want to hear. Then, in private, the NBA devises new schemes to practice human sacrifice on a grand scale in some sort of shameless death cult. I am making a pretty serious accusation here. I am accusing the NBA of planning to display an irreconcilable hatred toward all nations. And I don't want anyone to think that I am basing my accusation only on the fact that for its crude plans to succeed, the NBA needs to dumb down our society. An uninformed populace is easier to control and manipulate than an educated populace. One day, schoolchildren will stop being required to learn the meanings of words like "pseudointernationalistic" and "pathologicohistological". They will be incapable of comprehending that the NBA sells the supposed merits of racialism on the basis of rhetoric, not evidence. The evidence, however belated, is now in, and the evidence says that we must put the NBA's money-grubbing mind games out to pasture. If we fail then all of our sacrifices and all of the dreams and sacrifices of our ancestors will have been in vain. The key is to realize that I can reword my point as follows. The NBA's causeries are intended to get us all on board the exclusivism train. That's it for this letter. I hope that typing it was not a complete waste of energy. Unfortunately, I do realize that my words will probably trigger no useful response in the flabby synapses of the NBA's brain. I just felt obligated to go through the motions because the NBA lusts for a world in which quixotic recidivists confuse the catastrophic power of state fascism with the repression of an authoritarian government in our minds.

 

[LOTBfan]

Somehow I don't think Stern will understand that, nor will his handlers

 

[mrkorb]

Which online complaint letter generator spit that out for you?

 

[MrJayremmie]

This letter is going to be a book of revelations to many readers. In particular, many will be surprised to learn that each liberated mind that examines all of the evidence is a break in the chains that bind us all. To begin at the beginning, people sometimes ask me why I seem incapable of saying anything nice about the NBA. I'd like to—really, I would. The problem is, I can't think of anything nice to say. I guess that's not surprising when you consider that by allowing the NBA to redefine unbridled self-indulgence as a virtue, as the ultimate test of personal freedom, we are selling our souls for dross. Instead, we should be striving to lift the fog from its thinking. While it is reasonable to expect that the NBA has the gall to shower debauched, virulent peevish-types with undeserved encomia, it remains that it is always trying to change the way we work. This annoys me because the NBA's previous changes have always been for the worse. I'm positive that its new changes will be even more unimaginative because by forcing me to lose my temper, the NBA has forfeited its claim to be morally superior to Attila's Huns or Hulagu's Mongols. Well, that's another story. To get back to my main point, I ought to mention that we mustn't be content to patch and darn, to piece and cobble at the worn and rotten fabric of the NBA's inimical, cocky publicity stunts. Instead we must shatter the illusion that it has its moral compass in tact.

If history follows its course, it should be evident that I don't know what makes the NBA think that children should belong to the state. Maybe it's been sipping cuckoo juice. The fact of the matter is that if we face our problems realistically, get to the root of our problems, and be determined to solve them then the sea of favoritism, on which the NBA so heavily relies, will begin to dry up. Knowledge and wisdom are the NBA's enemies. It understands that by limiting education and enlightenment, it can fool more people into believing that we have too much freedom. Sadly, those with the least education are those who would benefit most from the knowledge that the NBA is thoroughly gung-ho about academicism because it lacks more pressing soapbox issues. Here's some news for you: Belligerent the NBA clones demand the advantages other people have earned without the disadvantages, like having to earn them. Interesting, isn't it? What you may find even more interesting is that it is attracted to cannibalism like a moth to a candle. Have you noticed that that hasn't been covered at all by the mainstream media? Maybe they're afraid that the NBA will retaliate by giving rise to pouty reavers.

Our battle with the NBA is a battle between spiritualism and exhibitionism, between tradition and subversion, between the defenders of Western civilization and its enemies. With the battle lines drawn as such, it is abundantly clear that the NBA's metanarratives are based on a technique I'm sure you've heard of. It's called "lying". I want to see all of us working together to deal with the NBA's vulgar revenge fantasies on a case-by-case basis. Yes, this is an idealistic approach to actualizing our restorative goals. Nevertheless, you should realize that we can no longer afford to do nothing about the NBA's intolerant, caustic precepts. Instead, we must strike while the iron is hot and make a cause célèbre out of exposing its beliefs for what they really are. The NBA writes a lot of long statements that mean practically nothing. What's sneaky is that it constructs those statements in such a way that it never occurs to its readers to analyze them. Analysis would almost certainly indicate that the NBA's lies come in many forms. Some of its lies are in the form of tirades. Others are in the form of off-the-cuff comments. Still more are in the form of folksy posturing and pretended concern and compassion. If we intend to defend democracy, we had best learn to recognize its primary enemy and not be afraid to stand up and call it by name. That name is the NBA.

That is my online generated complaint against "the NBA". LOL.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I'm not overly concerned about it. Things will get better and eventually the regular star treatment refs will be back.

 

[LittleAlex]

I'm not overly concerned about it. Things will get better and eventually the regular star treatment refs will be back.

The last game had the two worst call I have ever seen.

And I mean ever.

The offensive foul on Brandon when some Denver player ran into him was beyond bad. It was "that just made my brain hurt" bad.

Then the offensive foul they called to foul Oden out. Oden moved his shoulder like 6 inches. The reason K-Mart got contact was that he had both hands full of Oden's jersey.

Shit like that can cost a team a game. These clowns need to go back to rec league.

 

[hasoos]

I have to admit the refs have been really bad. When this first happened I didn't really give a shit because of all the ref bullshit the last few years with Donnaghy and stuff, and figured it was a nice opportunity to clean house. But I admit I was wrong. These refs are bad. Really bad. The main thing that made me realize how truly bad they were is the fact that if you think about it, if 11 guys from your team foul out (66 team fouls) you would not have enough players to suit up. In some of these games, they have come within 10 fouls or less of meeting that mark. I saw one the other day where some team got 57 called against them.

 

[Paxil]

As soon as we all say we won't complain about reg ref's officiating Stern will bring them back. =( It is part of his master plan.

 

[ucatchtrout]

Every year people bitch about the regular refs. And they bitch a lot. And now we want them back? Fuck em. Fire em all. Train the new guys to do it right. It will take a while, but they will catch on. There is a learning curve in everything.

 

[blue32]

Every year people bitch about the regular refs. And they bitch a lot. And now we want them back? Fuck em. Fire em all. Train the new guys to do it right. It will take a while, but they will catch on. There is a learning curve in everything.

I agree w/this.


Last year we got screwed by the "regulars" in the play-offs, don't you guys remember that?

 

[LittleAlex]

As soon as we all say we won't complain about reg ref's officiating Stern will bring them back. =( It is part of his master plan.

Just because the replacements are complete ass doesn't mean the regular refs are good.

 

[elcap15]

I dont really think the refs have been that bad. They call too many fouls, but its preseason where there are always more fouls.

The regular refs were terrible, so are these guys. No difference to me.

 

[LOTBfan]

I was ok with pretty mucch every ref but Violet and Leon last year.

Wojnarowski article here for those of you who can read him without getting violent.

Thus, the whistles never stop blowing. They hesitate on the obvious and tweet on the bizarre. The games are a traffic pileup of starts and stops, sluggish and unwatchable. There’s no flow, no rhythm.

“They don’t have a feel for the NBA game,” one NBA GM said. “They’re really quick to blow their whistles before letting the play develop.”

All along, everyone believed the NBA and the referee’s union would reach an agreement before opening night. The two sides are close on every important issue in negotiations and the pressure’s on Stern to finish a deal. The refs miss the paychecks, but the veteran officials own the leverage now.

Opening night with replacement refs will be a disaster for the NBA, an unrelenting storyline. To think that the commissioner would run the risk of allowing one of these crews to officiate Boston-Cleveland next Tuesday night, well, it’s downright disturbing. Yes, it’s on the officials that they have twice backed away from apparent deals in these negotiations, but this can’t go on.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...replacementreferees101909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Good news!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4580650