Friday, June 8, 2012

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.

13 comments:

  1. So, by your "officiating" comment I'd assume Thunder vs Heat as the Celts will be eliminated by bad officiating if it needs to come to that.

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  2. I'm saying that the calls were so bad that the thought entered my mind... The next morning I searched 'bad calls Thunder Spurs' online and found all kinds of different websites with comment threads where viewers thought that the Spurs got a raw deal from the officials, including comments from Thunder fans (I wanted to see if it was just me, because the commentators were completely glossing over the calls). It reminded me of Roethlisberger's rookie year with the Steelers when we met the Patriots in the playoffs and every New England receiver had ACRES of free space (as I watched in complete shock), only to find out later that the Pats had been videotaping opponents practices - it just looked very suspect...

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  3. NBA officiating has SUCKED for years. Who you are matters more than what infraction you may have committed. The league lost me years ago because of that.

    Your "TSO" chant reminded me of a high school game I was pitching. The umpire was really squeezing the strike zone on me, never giving me anything on the black. After the game, my uncle gave him one of his business cards and told him to call, he obviously needed help.

    My uncle worked for the Texas Commission for the Blind at the time :) Classic!

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  4. During my sophomore year of high school, the varsity baseball team went to the state championship game, and everyone was of the opinion that the home plate umpire wouldn't call strike three for our pitcher because he didn't want to end the game on a 'called strike' - we ended up losing the game...

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  5. I saw a Spurs the in the second half turning the ball over and making terrible shots and plays. The Heat won last night but I am not convinced they are a great team. Rondo is a magician. So much for my Spurs-Heat series I had talked about before. Now we wait and see.

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  6. I also saw suspiciously awful calls... I thought Heat/Celtics would go seven, so I'm not surprised it has. Oklahoma City is a good team and should give either opponent a great series.

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  7. Baseball is the worst, and they resist instant replay. I'm beginning to think that they could use the NFL system where a manager could throw the red flag to get a play reviewed.

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  8. Sound Sore! Manu is the king of the FLOP!

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  9. You're not disputing any of the calls that I mentioned though, are you?...

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  10. NBA refs are bad AND are always suspected of doing the bidding of Stern and the owners. Do we know for sure that any have ever fixed games? Uh ... wait a minute ...

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  11. Yeah, and it's funny because I'm not the conspiracy theorist type either, but the calls were SO BAD that that's the thought that crept into my head... I wonder how shocked we'd be if we actually knew every time that something was 'fixed' or points were 'shaved', etc...

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  12. My condolences on the Spurs, it was a total shock to me. After game 2 they looked as unbeatable as any time I've ever seen. What a turnaround.

    Regards the officiating, I think I've seen a lot of really bad calls in both series but I really haven't gotten the feeling it was slanted one way or the other, one of the advantages of not having a dog in the hunt. Someone in the Heat/Celtic game the other nite got a T for taunting which I thought was pretty much the worst call in the history of sports and the head of officiating should have come down from the stands right then and there and fired the ref who called it.

    But I find the notion that the league rigs games to get certain teams in the finals or the next round to be one of the more absurd ideas ever. Have you noticed that the team from the second biggest market (hint: their hockey team is better than their basketball teams) lost in 5 games to a team from a ridiculously small market?

    Of course, David Stern DID rig the entire season by nixing the Chris Paul to Lakers deal. :)

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  13. Again, I never said that it was rigged, but those calls were so bad that that's where my head went. With just the calls that I listed above it's pretty much a tie game... And now that you mention it, WHY did Stern nix that deal? :)

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