Still hilarious. The guy seemed to be apologizing profusely.

I think Claderon stepped out of bounds before trying to grab the ball….. so it wouldnt have mattered anyway.

EMMCEE JUST OWNED CHRISTINA…LOVE IT!

Every team in the league has the same salary cap and has to follow the same rules as it applies to signing free agents…Teams can however go over the salary cap to resign their own players..Not just the Lakers but EVERY team in the league has the same opportunity to go over the cap to sign their own players..When you go over the cap you pay the luxury tax, which some owners dont want to pay so they trade their higher priced players to other teams so they wont have to pay the luxury tax…Dont point at “Large Market” teams as if they have special rules when they dont…Every GM or team president doesnt have the advantage of putting together a great team…Cleveland isnt as large a market as the Lakers and they have the best record in the league, San Antonio not as large as L.A. and they have 4 titles….On the Flipside the Clippers are in L.A. as well and when was the last time they made it to the playoffs much less won a title or even played in a championship game, Conference or NBA?

You consider some of my points as “fundamental flaws”, yet much of what you say is your opinion, similar to how my post was my opinion. We aren’t dealing much in solid facts here, because unfortunately much of what the refs seem to do is subtle. However, I’ll respond to what I can.

First of all, I never said that the Lakers led the league in FT attempts. Nor did I say Kobe took tons of FT’s. There are many other things a ref can do that changes the flow of the game. They can call non-shooting fouls on a superstar that results in making that player less aggressive. They can call traveling on one team and not another (because, let’s face it, they COULD call traveling on about 2/3 of plays but that would be kill the flow of the game and many travels don’t benefit the player/team). They could give the ball to one team on a disputed out-of-bounds play more often, even if they aren’t particularly close. Free throws can certainly affect a game, but they aren’t the only thing.

Again, I am not saying that the league is full-blown fixing the games so the Lakers win. I’m saying I think refs tend to give the Lakers the benefit of the doubt more often than whoever they are playing. Please, look through my past posts and show me where I say anything about a lack of talent on the Lakers. I hate Kobe, but he’s one of the two best players in the game today. He’s insanely talented and clearly works very hard and is extremely dedicated to his sport. There’s no question about that. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got to the Finals again. I also wouldn’t be surprised if you saw the refs give them a bit of help along the way.

You make a perfectly true point—if one team is better than another, the refs probably won’t be able to change the outcome. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things they do. Imagine this scenario. Let’s say Miami is playing Orlando, and let’s say that, for whatever reason, the league would benefit from Miami winning. They can’t stop Orlando from making shots, but they could easily call 3 quick fouls on Dwight Howard to effectively take him out of the game. Or, if you switch the teams, the same could happen on Wade. It might not be blatant, and the fouls might even be valid, but if they’re normally let go and suddenly called, it takes a player out, not only in terms of playing time, but mentally as well. You might not see a discrepency in free throws, but the refs could certainly impact the game in other ways.

Again, I NEVER said the league purposely has certain players/coaches sign with the Lakers. But it’s a storied franchise, and for some reason LA is desirable for people to live in. Personally, I don’t like southern CA. Way too many people, terrible traffic, smog, absurd prices, etc. But a lot of people like it, so it’s a desirable location. Since the Lakers have a huge market, they can pay players more. Oh, and in the 90’s, the NBA had MJ to bank on. They hardly needed more.

To reply to your other post, about the salary cap. You seem to be under the impression that I don’t know how a salary cap works. Believe me, I’m very much aware of what a salary cap is and how it works, and how any team could exceed it if they wanted to. But can you really not see the insane advantage LA has in this respect? Again, not fixed by the league, but a simple fact. If you live in an area with 10+ million people, you can afford to go $10 over the salary cap and pay the $10 in luxury taxes. If you’re a small market, with a loyal but smaller fan base, you can’t. It’s that simple. If the league would grow a pair and actually make a REAL salary cap, you’d see the talent spread out a lot more. I think this is one reason why football is the most popular sport in America. The NFL has a real salary cap and has never had a true dynasty team. The Steelers have won the most Super Bowls, with 6. 6!! Out of 44! The Cowboys have been in the most Super Bowls, and they’ve only been in 8. Compared to how frequently the Lakers and/or Celtics have been in the NBA Finals, that’s nothing. I truly think the more even playing field and true salary cap are what makes football so much more popular. The thought of being a dominant team aren’t as far-fetched as they are in the NBA. And again, I understand that other teams can go over the salary cap, but you can’t deny that teams in bigger markets (especially LA, with it’s storied franchise and superstar player) can EASILY afford to pay much, much more than a team in a smaller market with fewer fans.

IF David Stern controls everything within the NBA, why wouldnt he make the other franchise in California a top contender as well. Wouldnt that bring him A LOT more money. Those 17 million people would have to go out and buy clipper gear as well to support the other good team. Ticket prices would go up and money going to the NBA would basically be doubled in LA. It makes sense to me, but for some reason the NBA continues to let the Clippers suck. What is up with that?

These conspiracy theories are ridiculous. Im tired of em.

If you ask me it seems as if officials are going out of their way to not show the Lakers any favoritism in calls due to TIM D coming out about fixing games……But that’s just my opinion also

But I wonder how you could think the Lakers got “nothing” in terms of calls against Miami or Orlando. I saw both of those games, and while overall I felt they were pretty even, there were several fouls that went the Lakers’ way at the end of the games that shouldn’t have been made. How about in Orlando, when Gasol tangled himself up with Dwight Howard, who simply got free, without throwing any elbows or doing anything that anyone could construe as dirty. If anything, Gasol should’ve been called for an offensive foul (though I wouldn’t have called it, as the game had been physical/chippy throughout), yet somehow they called a foul on Dwight Howard. It was at the end of the 3rd and it was his 4th foul, which affects his play for the rest of the game.

Yeah, that’s an isolated incident, but it happens all the time when it favors your team. But yeah, obviously refs won’t get it right 100% of the time, but can you honestly say there are never games where the refs have a bias one way or another? Not even necessarily Laker games, but games in general.

I’ll reply to it now. I’m sure you won’t agree with anything I care, but that’s the wonderful thing about free speech, right? :)

We’re bored, we know this is a long shot, but it’s fun to speculate. Trying to say it’s improper is silly. Also, attempting to compare this against the LeBron coming to L.A. scenarios is not only slightly hypocritical, but far more far-fetched than any of the scenarios that have been put out regarding Bosh.

but it seems like he’s regressed all the way back to 08 stage….He can snap out of it or Bynum can continue to do what he’s been doing and play like a big man is supposed to play….One way or the other it’s gonna hafta get done in the post..