Any fan of the L knows who Dick Bavetta is. The longest serving active NBA referee has been the face of officiating for years, through both good times (eliminating hand checking rules) and the bad (Tim Donaghy's match-fixing scandal).
As a natural reaction to teams performances and the calls that go against them, fans often react negatively towards the officials, their verbal criticisms and boos a means of implying that they are partial towards certain franchises. Just ask any knowledgeable Mavericks or Spurs fans about their records when one of the Crawford brothers is officiating, especially Dallas' putrid record when Joey Crawford has the whistle in his hand.
Last night the Raps were robbed by Mr. Bavetta in a 3-point loss to the Knicks at the Madison Square Gardens 113-110.
Despite the fact that the Knicks have been on a tear of late, the Raptors played well, led by Andrea Bargnani's career-high 41 points which included an outburst of 15 points in the game's final 12 minutes.
Regardless of their effort, the Raps could not get a break, and I'm not even considering Raymond Felton's game-winning three ball with under 3 seconds remaining that bounced upon the rim more times than Shawn Bradley has been posterized by large black men.
You may be asking yourself why bitch about the officiating and do you have any specific instances to back-up your point? Fuck you, and yes should adequately answer both queries.
Late in the 4th quarter, Amir Johnson was called for a 3-second violation, which in the event you suck at life and know nothing, means an offensive player cannot remain inside the paint for a duration of 3-seconds without a part of him (i.e. his foot) outside of the area. The whistle was blown just after a jump shot was taken, which means the final of the penalized 3-seconds is a moot point as a shot was taken. That would be the first grave error.
The second is far more infuriating, and a call that in itself is rarely made. With the Knicks up 110-107 with 57 seconds remaing, Raps forward Linas Kleiza was called for a 5-second violation, which penalizes a team if they are not able to inbound the ball within the allotted period of 5-seconds. I'm struggling to find the clip on YouTube, but it was clearly not more than 3-seconds when Bavetta crew-mate Tony Brothers blew his whistle. Post-game Kleiza had this to say;
"Definitely I thought it was three or four seconds. I never had one go against me like that. I definitely don't want to comment about the calls. You know how the NBA does it. You guys don't want me to get fined. It is what it is."
Conspiracy theories aside, any fan of the game knows that the league wants its marquee franchises to succeed. For long enough, the Knicks have blown chunks all over the hallowed court at MSG and embarrassed their ever-passionate fan base. They are due for some success, and commissioner David Stern must be frothing-at-the-mouth witnessing the revival of the playoff bound Knicks and a basketball revitalization in the country's largest market.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not even hating on the Knicks. I like Amar'e Stoudamire and Coach Mike D'Antoni because they run high-tempo offensive sets and I love me some names with punctuation. Raymond Felton has found his niche, Wilson Chandler is my black cousin and holy fuck, how did Landry Fields go from dropping 12 a game with Stanford to being the starting 2 Guard for the Knicks? Who-the-fuck-knows, regardless I like the Knicks and they're far more tolerable minus the Isiah factor.
Fair enough, but do you have to fuck the Raps like this as a means to an end. Nobody wants to play here but a handful of Europeans and frankly, for that matter, Bargnani and the boys are playing with a shitload of heart each and every night, only to be ridiculed by pundits as the league's worst starting five.
You know what, fuck you Knick Bavetta, fuck you NBA officiating committee and fuck all those players who don't want to live in Canada and play for the Raps because it snows too much and there's a shortage of fried chicken spots. There's a foot of snow at the base of the Eiffel Tower as I write this and Toronto's bigger than the Dallas-Fort Worth area. So fuck everybody - I'm out.
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