To avoid the quotes:
1) I just don't think that Kobe is anything close to a team player and that clearly oozes out into my perception of his assists and selfishness. It's my opinion, it might be wrong, but, hey, there's no use in arguing.
2) That stat was an ESPN article about the Finals. I don't remember which one and, because ESPN's site really sucks, I can't dig it up again. I completely agree that when you're paid like Kobe, you should be pulling the trigger on the last play. I just think it's astounding that he has only one assist in that situation (again, if the stats are right). Even if you're getting the big bucks, taking a contested jump shot with three guys draped all over you might not be the best decision.
3) See #1. Kobe and I aren't buddies, so I clearly see what he does in a heavily biased way.
4) Right now, you're right. The series has progressed too far this way for the refs to change it midway. I would just rather see them call Ariza for a few of those fouls when they started and then call Hedo for pushing off if he keeps doing it instead of letting it escalate into a mugging (on both ends!).
5) Fair enough, I just wanted to show you that I wasn't blind to the fact that Kobe isn't the only player getting bailed out.
6) 100% agreed. Lack of consistency is something the NBA seems to embrace. I hate how they start off a game calling the game one way, decide halfway through that they should call it another and, by the fourth quarter be doing something completely different. It confuses players and makes them pick up unnecessary fouls in order to understand what they can and can't do.
I'd like to see fewer fouls. They break up the pace of the game. I'd like to see some rule changes that would allow for a more fluid, rapid game with fewer interruptions and fewer games that devolve into free throw contests (Games 6 and 7 of the Boston / Orlando series come to mind). I hate how Howard and Gasol and are fighting for position and some asshat ref blows a whistle because of a shove or something... let them play! Free throws and fouls are, of course, essential to the game, but they've taken over and they're hurting the game.
As an aside, I think two of the biggest problems in the NBA are the subjectivity of the rules and Stern's desire to regulate emotion out of the game. The NBA would be a better officiated league if the rules were more cut and dry, if there was less debate about whether that was a flagrant 1 or a flagrant 2 or whatever because SO much of that depends on who was involved or what the refs think they saw. Take the shove on Gasol. That's not a flagrant foul because Gasol is a monster. If a smaller guy like Shannon Brown had been on the receiving end of that it would have been flagrant. That makes no sense. Ugh, all these touchy fouls drive me nuts.
Finally, the NBA needs some younger refs. Why in god's name haven't they established a ref school whose job is to churn out new referees? Find college guys who aren't going to make the pros and develop a program that teaches them, from the ground up, how to ref. Send them to the NCAA for a few years, have them ref a few developmental league games and take the best ones and give them provisional status in the NBA. Make them attend remedial classes every year. Make them retire by age 50. Right now, you have to pay to go to the ref camp and it's a complete joke. They don't teach you anything. It's a joke.
/rant over.
1) I just don't think that Kobe is anything close to a team player and that clearly oozes out into my perception of his assists and selfishness. It's my opinion, it might be wrong, but, hey, there's no use in arguing.
2) That stat was an ESPN article about the Finals. I don't remember which one and, because ESPN's site really sucks, I can't dig it up again. I completely agree that when you're paid like Kobe, you should be pulling the trigger on the last play. I just think it's astounding that he has only one assist in that situation (again, if the stats are right). Even if you're getting the big bucks, taking a contested jump shot with three guys draped all over you might not be the best decision.
3) See #1. Kobe and I aren't buddies, so I clearly see what he does in a heavily biased way.
4) Right now, you're right. The series has progressed too far this way for the refs to change it midway. I would just rather see them call Ariza for a few of those fouls when they started and then call Hedo for pushing off if he keeps doing it instead of letting it escalate into a mugging (on both ends!).
5) Fair enough, I just wanted to show you that I wasn't blind to the fact that Kobe isn't the only player getting bailed out.
6) 100% agreed. Lack of consistency is something the NBA seems to embrace. I hate how they start off a game calling the game one way, decide halfway through that they should call it another and, by the fourth quarter be doing something completely different. It confuses players and makes them pick up unnecessary fouls in order to understand what they can and can't do.
I'd like to see fewer fouls. They break up the pace of the game. I'd like to see some rule changes that would allow for a more fluid, rapid game with fewer interruptions and fewer games that devolve into free throw contests (Games 6 and 7 of the Boston / Orlando series come to mind). I hate how Howard and Gasol and are fighting for position and some asshat ref blows a whistle because of a shove or something... let them play! Free throws and fouls are, of course, essential to the game, but they've taken over and they're hurting the game.
As an aside, I think two of the biggest problems in the NBA are the subjectivity of the rules and Stern's desire to regulate emotion out of the game. The NBA would be a better officiated league if the rules were more cut and dry, if there was less debate about whether that was a flagrant 1 or a flagrant 2 or whatever because SO much of that depends on who was involved or what the refs think they saw. Take the shove on Gasol. That's not a flagrant foul because Gasol is a monster. If a smaller guy like Shannon Brown had been on the receiving end of that it would have been flagrant. That makes no sense. Ugh, all these touchy fouls drive me nuts.
Finally, the NBA needs some younger refs. Why in god's name haven't they established a ref school whose job is to churn out new referees? Find college guys who aren't going to make the pros and develop a program that teaches them, from the ground up, how to ref. Send them to the NCAA for a few years, have them ref a few developmental league games and take the best ones and give them provisional status in the NBA. Make them attend remedial classes every year. Make them retire by age 50. Right now, you have to pay to go to the ref camp and it's a complete joke. They don't teach you anything. It's a joke.
/rant over.