They say that great teams make the refs a non factor. Thats exactly what the Blazers did yesterday-they could have folded after Kobe tried to rip out our hearts again yesterday (that was a moving screen on Fish that wasn't called, although it was a blocking foul on LaMarcus BTW) but they didn't. For the Blazers to come out of Staples with a W yesterday was HUGE, esp. without Roy. For all you who are bashing on the refs: at least they didn't swallow the whistles like they did at the end of the OKC/Utah game. Bottom line-I think we are going to make some serious noise in the playoffs.
They are full of shit.
The great NBA teams almost never actually face adversarial officiating. That typically goes the other way.
Further, many a great team has been completely undone by officiating (Dallas in 2005, Kings in 2002, etc..).
To say that any team could possibily transcend a ref actively trying to fuck them over is absurd. An official can gain near complete control over a games should they choose to do so. Announcers even discuss it openly during games. How if a game is getting "out of control" the officials will start making more calls to get the game back in hand. Really? How is this acceptable?
I have yet to hear about an official being fined or suspended for abusing that power (Jake O'Donald once bragged about fucking over the Trailblazers because he hated Drexler yet he wasn't punished even for admitting bias).
I have heard many times of players, coaches and owners being fined millions of dollars for even questioning an officials performance.
The sad fact is if an official decides your team isn't going to win a game, your team isn't going to win that game. They may not have to be blantent about it. They can always make a couple of bad calls the other way to give the appearance of being mearly incompetent. But they can do whatever the hell they want to to ensure your team loses. It's not like there is any mechanism to challenge calls other then having the same dude look at it again.
We all hope that officials don't abuse their power since that would taint a game we love to watch. Some people go to great lengths to avoid admitting that such abuse is even possible.
But they do abuse their power. Probably not every time someone has said they did. But there is a 100% certainty that some NBA official at some time decided who would win a game before the opening tip.
I am pretty sure that is not what happened in the begining of the Dallas game. I am 100% sure that is what happened after Mauer got upset. After a certain point in the game Mauer was not going to let Portland win just to spite the fans booing him.