"The NBA wants a new MJ, so they've annointed Dwyane Wade as the savior of basketball."
"What sucks the most is that even if David Stern doesn't fix this mess, the NBA will still have a ton of viewers because it has a golden child who can do no wrong."
"It's what the league wants."
I typed all of this before tonight's game. And I'm still disappointed that this wasn't a 7-game series. Game 3 was a meltdown. Game 5 was a fix. If Miami would have won this in 7 games, in a fair game, I wouldn't complain. The better team always wins a 7-game series. After tonight, this series should have been tied 3-3.
The league wanted a new star, and they've created one. All of the announcers and analysts have been comparing Wade to MJ. Every headline is "The Next MJ?" They compare his scoring in the first 5 games to MJ's, and the point out that he is scoring more. The way they tell it, they don't want just another MJ. They want someone better.
Wade will never be half the player MJ was. Today's rules favor guards. A touch here or there is whistled more often than not. From the late 80s to the mid 90s, there was period of tough players. Finishing the shot no matter what. Taking it strong without expecting help from the refs. MJ hit game-winning shots. Wade takes game-winning free throws.
Another example of the League wanting a new star is how every halftime featured something about the Miami Heat. When Miami lost the first 2 games, it was all about what Miami didn't do. When the Heat won the next 3 games, it was all about what they did right. The way reporters made it sound, the Mavs were happy enough to just be there.
When David Stern wanted a better basketball game overall, he made many changes, including increasing the minimum age for the draft. That message was loud and clear. "We want NBA players to have college experience." What better way to put an exclamation point on his statement than to have a 4-year college student lead his team to a championship.
Every analyst will tell you that the Western Conference is much more competitive than the Eastern Conference. This stems from the West winning 6 out of 7 championships starting with San Antonio in '99. If Stern wants to create a fair balance, he would have to see an Eastern Conference team win the title. Mission accomplished.
When asked if "Mark Cuban hurts the Dallas Mavericks," David Stern hesistated and replied, "Yes." Shouldn't the answer be "No?" If there is harm, it's from the refs since Cuban always yells about them. However, Cuban doesn't yell just to be loud. He yells because there are mistakes that should be avoided. If the refs are calling things against the Mavs more often than not because of Cuban, isn't that being biased? Should refs like that really be officiating any game?
I want to point out something else. When the Mavs went up by 27 in Game 2, the refs started calling more fouls to cut into the lead for Miami. They got within 12. When Miami went up by 20 in Game 4, the refs called more travels and such on Miami, and as a result Dallas closed the 3rd quarter within 10. In Game 6, when the Mavs were up 26-12, the refs got involved and made it a close game.
During this series, it seemed like whenever a team was putting it out of reach, the refs stepped in. Ratings, anyone? The casual NBA viewer will turn off the TV if the game looks like it's been decided. So, how about making the games stay close by calling more fouls when needed?
We all know what type of relationship Stern and Cuban have. It's almost like The Odd Couple. From Stern's end, how must it have felt to present the championship to Miami in Dallas and in front of Mark Cuban? I bet pretty good.
Stu Jackson, Stern's right hand man, is the one that decided to suspend Stack for Game 5. No doubt he got his orders from Stern. I'm not saying that with Stack we would have won. I am saying that we were missing our 6th man. And our bench scoring just so happened to be really low that game.
Dallas mistakes? Announcing plans for a parade after Game 2? That one is on Laura Miller. Howard's comments about Wade and his shooting? That one is on Howard. Cuban going on Letterman and talking about the coaching of Riley? On Mark Cuban.
Dallas not winning the title? That one is on David Stern. He controls Stu Jackson, and he controls the refs. He dislikes Mark Cuban. And he wants a new star.
I have lost faith in the NBA. I have lost faith in sports media. Considering that for the past few years, I would have quit everything to be a 12th man on a bench for an NBA team, or a basketball reporter for a moderately popular newspaper, that speaks volumes.
I didn't just watch the Mavs play. I watched Houston, Denver, New Orleans, Cleveland, and even San Antonio. I'll watch the Mavs, and I'll watch T-Mac. But there's nothing I can expect. I can't have any expectations for their seasons.
By the way, if LeBron doesn't sign an extension and ends up in the Western Conference, you'll know that Stern wants an MJ-Magic type rivalry. It's the best way to get ratings during the NBA finals.
And one last thing. A quote from Bill Simmons, the only ESPN reporter I respect.
"Second, everyone knew the officiating would be a problem heading into this series because of Cuban's past problems with the league. In my Finals preview, I wrote that 'No team depends on the refs quite like the Heat. When the refs are calling all the bumps on Shaq and protecting Wade on every drive, they're unstoppable. When they're calling everything fairly, they're eminently beatable. If they're not getting any calls, they're just about hopeless. I could see the refs swinging two games in Miami's favor during this series, possibly three. In fact, I'm already depressed about it and the series hasn't even started yet.' Well, we had our two games -- Game 3 (the last five minutes were just obscene) and Game 5 (again, a top-five debacle). And the series isn't over yet."
It's over now.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Manipulation
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The NBA doesn't want a new MJ, they just want a face - a marketing scheme. It was Wilt and then the Celtics in 60s, it was ABA v. NBA in the 70s, it was Magic v. Bird in the 80s, it was Jordan in the 90s, and the Lakers had the early 2000s. But now, they have all these young players that are kind of grouped together - all you here about is the 2003 draft. I don't necessarily believe Dwyane Wade will increase viewership, but that is there objective.
Game 3 was a meltdown, but game 5 was not fixed - it was just poorly officiated. The "league" didn't create a new star - Wade is a star with tons of talent and I want to hear you debate that topic. Shaq created a star and Avery aided that creation by doubling down on Shaq. No one will ever be better than MJ overall, maybe for a series or just maybe for an entire playoff, but never overall. The difference is that Jordan was the man to beat on his team and he was couldn't be beat. Wade only looked as good as he did because of Shaq.
Players are still tough. I agree, there are a lot of ticky-tac fouls these days on defenders. My stance is just to the same call for contact on both sides of the ball. His Airness did hit game-winning shots, but so has Wade. And, Wade is making game-wining free throws - something Dirk can't do and he is stastically a better shooter.
The media is Heat-biased, but that is expected and you should not be suprised. It has more to do with Dallas not being a team everyone likes.
Wade wasn't at Marquette for 4 years, he came out after his junior year. In fact, he only playted two years of college ball because he sat out his freshman year due to academics.
The West is more competitive, but they have only won 6-8 of the last titles, including this year. In the last 10 years the East have won 4 titles and the one leading up to that 10 years. It's just that the West has more power, more stars with teams. It's not that the the top teams in the East are sub-par.
I don't like to talk about Cuban. He's good for the Mavericks revenue, but good for the team - I'm still not sure.
I don't think refs are instructed to make game more even, I just think that poor officals have a tendancy to blow the whistle more in a lop-sided game.
I don't agree with the Stack suspension either, but the Mavericks lost this series all on their own. They fell apart in game 3 and never played well in game 4. Game 5 was also something they lost with poor free throw shooting, poor defensive rotations, and poor movement on the offensive end. They didn't have any assists because they all watch Dirk or Terry pull up and shoot or drive the lane. At the end of game 6, the reason they came back was because of passing - just look at the kick outs and the swing passes to get Stack two three pointers.
The Mav could have played their way to a championship and they didn't - and that's coming from a Mav's fan and life-long lover of the game.
We saw how much farther good defense got us this year. Now let's hope Harris gets more playing time next year so we can have a true point and an offense that passes the ball. Why do thems with Shaq win titles? Not because he has monster games, but because everyone is scared he will have a monster game so they double him and he passes the ball around, and that shows his teammates to pass the ball around. The Jordan teams won because of him and passing. They didn't have a big man, but they had MJ and Pippen wo both averaged more than 5 assists a game. Then they had a Paxton or a Kerr on top of that. The Mavs passed the ball well in the first 3 quarters of game 6. In the first quarter an a half the shot were falling, but in the late second quarter and third quarter, the shots just weren't falling.
You know, I went this whole rant without talking about how Dirk will never be the kind of superstar that can put his team on his back. Well, almost.
B
Post a Comment