TSO, TSO, TSO!!!

Good morning everyone.  It's in the wee hours of the morning here in San Marcos, America, and I thought that I would do this post now so that I can sleep in until my alarm goes off for work if I choose.  As a Spurs fan, I am obviously disappointed with the outcome of the game played Wednesday night, and not just because Oklahoma City has a good ballclub.  Let me repeat that - the Thunder are a very talented basketball team.  It really became difficult to watch the final game of that series because the officiating was so obviously one-sided and eventually decided the outcome of the game and the series.  The calls made in the second half of that game were of the, "well I wonder if this game is fixed and David Stern would rather see a young up-and-coming Thunder team in the Finals, as opposed to a Spurs team that doesn't draw high ratings when they win the championship variety...".  There was the call when Manu Ginobili was driving across the top of the lane, Kevin Durant slid in front of him, hit Ginobili while still sliding, the shot went in the basket, and then a CHARGE was called...  Then there was the call when Ginobili hit the Spur in the corner off the left baseline, got run into by James Harden, Harden flopped, and Ginobili was hit with another offensive foul as the Spurs' three-pointer ripped through the net (five points and a free-throw taken away to this point)...  There was the offensive rebound under the basket when Westbrook whacked the Spur across the face, the Spur lost the ball out of bounds, and nothing was called, except Thunder basketball...  BRUTAL...

I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but officiating is a real concern when I consider the amount of sports betting that I plan on doing when I return to the desert.  It was just a few days ago that I heard the NFL's officials are having a labor dispute with the league, and that the league has publicly stated that it is prepared to lock them out and use replacement officials this year if an agreement cannot be reached.  ESPN reported this move was likely made because there was the threat of a walkout by the league's officials in October, once the season has already started.  It's hard enough watching sports with the "good" officials sometimes, isn't it?

I missed the Spurs/Thunder prediction, calling the Spurs in six games, and my other two current playoff predictions are still ongoing.  I called the Heat in seven games over the Celtics, and they are returning to Miami for the seventh and deciding game Saturday.  I think the James just scored on the Celtics again....  I called the Devils over the Kings in seven games in the Stanley Cup Finals, and the Devils have the Kings right where they want them, only needing to win three more games in a row to completely overcome the 3-0 deficit they began the series with...

The officiating from the other night brought to mind a few stories from my coaching past that I wanted to share with you.  Right as I was getting into coaching, this as a volunteer with summer softball leagues that my sister participated in, a popular chant when fans were upset with calls by the umpires was "TSO, TSO, TSO!!!"  For those of you who don't live in Texas, that would be 'Texas State Optical'...  :)  As a basketball coach, the question that I had most often from the bench in varsity games (which use three officials in most cases) was, "THREE OF YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT?!"  Game six of the Spurs/Thunder series brought that one to mind...  Once when I was on the bench as an assistant coach, my head coach was yelling at the official, "WHERE'S YOUR WHISTLE, WHERE'S YOUR WHISTLE?!!"  The official, running by our bench, stopped, turned to face our coach, blew their whistle, called a technical foul on our coach, and responded, "there's your whistle..."

It's so good to have a place to vent...  :)  I hope that you have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday.