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March 11, 2002 DO NBA OFFICIALS HATE THE GAME OF BASKETBALL?
Where have you gone Charles Oakley-man? (You have to maintain the rhythm) A nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Raptor fans were critical of the Oak-man last season, mostly because he brought it on himself, but this season the team has been lacking the inside toughness that Oakley provided. Last year whenever a slashing opponent tried to carve through the Raptor defence there was Oakley stepping in to take the charge. There isn’t anybody like that this year and it is a main reason why the middle of the Raptor defence is like the 7-eleven, open all day. Oakley also followed the old New York Knick defensive motto—no lay-ups. Tracy MacGrady didn’t have to worry about contact on his dunk since there isn’t a Raptor that plays with that much aggressiveness. Antonio plays aggressively, but prides himself on fair play--he doesn’t have the personality needed to push the boundaries of the rules to invigorate his team. Vince Carter had been laid out with an elbow to the face (an elbow which was only mostly accidental as Pat Garrity came down a little harder than normal from his shot). It was time for a statement. The time came in the final few minutes. The game had already been decided when MacGrady took off on his dunk. A Raptor should have come across and made certain of two things—no dunk, and MacGrady hits the floor, hard. Oakley would have done it. He did it to Carter earlier this year. The Raptors need that toughness. They don’t have it this year, but if the club is going to stay competitive for the next few years they will need to find someone who can provide that toughness.
Finally, the Raptors played 48 minutes of competitive basketball. Finally, the Raptors played solid defence in the second half of a game. Finally, the Raptors came across an opponent that played below their capabilities. Finally, the Raptors made the plays down the stretch to ensure a victory. Finally, the Raptors showed some passion and fire in a game. Finally, the Raptors won a game. It had been more than one month. Finally, the Raptors could feel good about themselves. Finally, we could, as fans, breathe a sigh of relief and say FINALLY.
There’s nothing that can make usually reasonable people lose their heads more than a lengthy losing streak Fire and passion were the emotions missing from this team. The team had taken on the personality of their rather placid head coach. The critics wanted to see some emotion from the head coach. That is not Lenny’s personality. Lenny has been around it seems like forever. There are greatest games being shown on TV from the seventies and there is Lenny, coaching. He has been coaching so long he doesn’t know what it’s like to be anything else. He can remember playing but his mindset is different. Playing gave him his coaching demeanour, and he has harvested that demeanour for three decades. He understands the mistakes the players make; he calls them over during games and reminds them of the proper way to make the play. He can see the big picture. He talks to his players, he encourages his players, and when he criticizes them he speaks of well thought out solutions. He just can’t see the reason for throwing a tantrum to make his players understand the urgency. He is the father. Maybe this team needs an agitated and overemotional older brother. Lenny was the perfect remedy for last season’s transitional team. Let’s go back nearly one year-- to the playoffs. The team was playing at peak efficiency. Only a stumble in game four, when they should have gone up 3-1 in the series and not been tied at two, kept them from the conference finals. The last second Carter miss should never have taken place. Outside of that one game they were solid throughout the playoffs, eleven competitive games against strong and experienced playoff competition. A team that was drastically altered through the season came together under Lenny’s calm leadership. He was perfect for that team. Let’s come back to the present. It is basically the same team on the court, but it has been badly underachieving since the opening tip of the season. There isn’t that sense of urgency. “We’ll have it in the playoffs”, said this team that had totalled fifteen playoff games in its history. Suddenly they look up, sixty games into the season, and they are facing the very real possibility that they may not even reach the playoffs. What do they do? They don’t panic, that’s for certain. They stay calm. They stay positive. They use time-honoured lines such as –‘there’s still a lot of season left’—or ‘we’ll be alright once we get that win’. They use quotes for inspiration. They stay within Lenny’s generalized philosophy of basketball. The players call for urgency, the coach calls for urgency, even the general manager calls for urgency, though it took twelve consecutive losses before those words came out. This hierarchy is as calm as there is in any sport. Do we fans need to place call? “Hey, Steve Stavro, forget your hockey team for a few days will ya, we’re losing down here. We need you-- urgently.”
The NBA protects their officials like a father protects his children. Last week Orlando coach Doc Rivers felt the league’s wrath when he was fined $7500 for, among other things, berating the officials. “The worst officiated game—ever,” he said. That same week, after a game against Seattle, Minnesota superstar Kevin Garnett said, “that was the worst call I’ve seen—ever”. He was referring to the fact that the official had forgotten that Gary Payton already had one technical when he included the Glove in a double technical call. The infraction wasn’t serious enough to warrant his exclusion from the game, voiced the other officials. The technical call was reversed.
These comments beg the question—how often, in an NBA season do we hear such strong opinions? The answer, it seems, is weekly. Why does it happen so often? Why does it always look like they’re making it up as they go along? And what about the minor calls made through a game that have absolutely no consequence except to slow down the game and give the official some face time. Is it because the officials really don’t like the game of basketball? How about Joey Crawford, this column’s favourite official, who admitted to Doc Rivers during the Sunday game that he might have blown a call against the Magic. Then, in the third quarter, Joey makes six straight calls against the Raptors—and all of them on the offensive end. I guess Joey didn’t want Doc to get mad at him and embarrass him in the papers.
“Daddy, make the bad man go away.” |