Hoops Playground

I wasn’t able to watch the entire Bulls/Celtics game last night. I was out celebrating my friend’s birthday with a few other people and there was no TV to watch. But after my friend Dave sent me a message telling me the game was another instant classic, we went to look for a place to watch the game. Fortunately, we were able to find one with a minute left in overtime. Watching what happened in that final minute did what watching Michigan football did to me last year. It made me sick.

A flagrant foul clearly should’ve been called on Rajon Rondo. Rondo was in no way going for the ball and even admitted as much after the game. His giant, alien hands came nowhere near the ball and in a picture on ESPN.com’s front page, you see his right hand clenched, hitting Brad Miller squarely in the mouth. Now, I’m not blaming Rondo here. He had to make a play. He couldn’t let Miller tie the game up with a layup and he had to foul him hard to prevent him from doing so. When he saw Miller with an open path to the basket, he probably remembered bear-hugging LeBron on a fast break and James still managing to score the basket for the and one. Now it’s not like it was Ben Gordon going for the hoop. It was the 7-foot 260-pound Miller. Rondo had to hit him hard and he did. Unfortunately, he hit him in the face, causing Miller’s tooth to pierce his lip. For that fact alone, a flagrant foul should’ve been called. But on top of that, couldn’t the refs kind of figure that Rondo was trying to intentionally foul Miller? They didn’t for once, wonder, “Gee, if I was playing in a situation where I’m the defending champion and I’m about to lose this game on my home floor to go down 3-2 to a hugely overrated and inexperienced team, I think I might try to intentionally foul the guy too”??????????? They couldn’t assess the situation and realize that? And if they couldn’t, they didn’t see Rondo flying in from behind and whacking Miller across the face? And if they didn’t see that, they didn’t see Miller’s lip busted open and blood spewing out of it?

What gets to me is that by not calling Rondo’s foul a flagrant, the refs essentially rewarded the Celtics. How did they do that you ask? Let’s say Miller hit both free throws to tie the game up at 106 (which is tough to even imagine considering he’s a big man who probably never had to shoot potential game-tying free throws in a pivotal playoff game, on the road, with 20,000 fans screaming for you to miss. And oh yeah, HE JUST GOT HIT IN THE FACE). With two seconds left, they’re giving the Celtics the final possession and the opportunity to win the game. And why do they deserve that? Rondo just smacked Miller across the face, caused him to bleed, and now you’re giving Boston the ball back for a chance to win? Given how Paul Pierce was playing, he probably would’ve hit the game-winning shot and that would’ve been a travesty. At least acknowledge that Rondo’s foul was excessive and give Chicago the ball back. And what the hell good is upgrading Rondo’s foul to a flagrant-1 after the game going to do? You can’t go back to Game 5 and give the Bulls possession again. Oohhhh Rondo gets 1 point on his flagrant foul record. Most likely he’s not going to commit another one anyway so what does upgrading Rondo’s foul do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I don’t understand what the deal is with the refs anymore. No one ever liked them to begin with, and after the whole Tim Donaghy scandal, we like and trust them even less. I understand it’s a tough job and I can live with the missing some calls here and there but something like missing Rondo’s flagrant and not ejecting Dwight Howard for his elbow to the face of Samuel Dalembert bothers the hell out of me. (Why they called a technical foul on Howard for that is mind-boggling. A technical? Really? That’s basically just admitting they should throw Howard out of the game but they don’t have the balls to do so. It would’ve been better just to do nothing. Oh wait, that’s pretty much what they did). The NBA should have an executive sitting in a box upstairs who only steps in on situations when the refs are clearly wrong like on Tuesday night. Hopefully he’d have the cajones to make the right call.

UPDATED: Dwyane Wade got called for a flagrant on that play???  Are you kidding me?  He got called for a flagrant and Rondo didn’t????  The league really has to do something about the reffing.  At least admit that the refs screwed up in the Celts/Bulls game.  Something.  And in my opinion, Dwight Howard should be suspended TWO games.  He threw that elbow with nine minutes left in the FIRST quarter, should’ve been ejected for that game, AND been suspended for Game 6.  Instead, he got to play the rest of the game and dominated the Sixers for 24 points and 24 boards.  It’s debatable whether or not the Sixers would’ve actually won that game but it’s fair to say that the Magic ended up winning because of Superman’s play.  It might cause too much of an uproar to suspend him for Game 7 (if there is one) so maybe he should be forced to miss Game 1 of the next series or the first game the 2009-2010 season.  Or he should be forced to watch Ghosts of Girlfriends Past over and over again.  Any of those would work.