It’s nice to see things happen naturally, organically, without forcing it. I know everybody has an agenda… Look at the College Football playoff selection. Undefeated ACC team Florida State got left out. Did they take the best teams right now? Did they take the most deserving teams? Or at the end of the day, was there no way in fricking hell this college playoff would go on without an SEC team… There’s got to be a better way. With an extended playoff from here on out, that should help things, right?
Well, same goes on in the NBA, in a big way. How bad does Adam Silver and the league want the Lakers and Lebron to win? Well… I saw that stat last year where the Lakers foul discrepancy was over 200 more than the next closest team; is that just insane or what? It’s so obvious, but they don’t care; it’s the same in the NFL with these refs. The fix is in some may say; I am in that group, no doubt, but… at least try to let things play out; at least try to let the teams determine who is best during the game, and not an orchestrated ref shit show. Take for example the end of the Lakers game against the Suns, when LeBron was granted a time out as the ball rolled down the court; excuse me? OK, let’s say for argument’s sake, the ref blew it…. fine; I’ll go there, but… you can’t review that? I love the things you can’t review… if you can review one thing, you should be able to review any thing, but why not? The reason is because it leaves a big area for the refs/Papa Vegas to work, period.
But yeah, back to the Lakers; I decided to look at their fouls this year, and as expected, they’re right on pace. Through the first 22 games of the season, they’ve received almost 100 more foul calls than their opponents. Like I said, it’s so obvious, but the league doesn’t care. Out of the 22 games, there have only been 5 games when the Lakers had more fouls called against them; their record in those games… 1-4. You can look at all the advanced metrics you want, but I’m here to tell you, fouls are a critical part of the Lakers’ success. Is it because of Lebron, or just the Lakers’ way? Surely MJ and the Bulls got more foul calls in their championship era, right? I looked it up.
They did get more foul calls (most of the time), but nowhere near what we’re seeing here. Here’s the variation for the 6 Bulls championship years for the full season: 75, 107, -73, 49, 115, and 83. The Lakers are sitting at 92 already; we’re only a quarter through the season… last year… 294! Then I started thinking about the Lakers’ titles with Kobe and Shaq; how’d that look? 258 more fouls for their first title, 130 in year 2 of the 3 peat, and only 67 in their 3rd. Anyways… something interesting to keep tabs on, but it won’t matter anyways.
The NBA will continue to force LeBron down our throat, helping him every step of the way; that’s just the facts. They couldn’t call enough fouls on the Nuggets in last year’s playoffs though… they’re really going to have to amp it up this postseason. Stay tuned…
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