TripleThreat wrote:soundcrib wrote:are the refs tired of linsanity? does he not have the refs' respect? i thought a foul is a foul is a foul regardless of circumstance.
IMHO, the refs have a pretty complicated situation with Jeremy Lin.
First, the league and Stern will point things out to refs but never directly tell them, not anything that can be documented, to officiate a certain way or not for a specific player or team. Nothing that can be construed as "I want this team to advance in the playoffs" and "I want you to job this player" This is so Stern can have complete deniability. I.E. I never said for anyone to do this or that, they did that on their own. What Stern and Stu Jackson will do is make sure any ref who does not toe the line and figure it out, give them what they want without it being said, will not be promoted, will not get raises, will not get playoff work and will eventually be cycled out of the league.
Second, if you are going to be a ref and cheat for Stern ( i.e. favor the players he wants to market, advance the teams he wants to move up for the ratings, and keep nationally televised games close), you can't look like you are cheating anyone. Hence, home teams will always be at an advantage. The way replays are shown and telecasts are done are designed to favor the home team. Stern will not punish refs for keeping the home crowd happy and to not incite problems on replay or the JumboTron during the game. Teams who win all their home games and lose all their road games, their season ticket holders will remember all those home wins. This is how you get them to renew. Esp with so much of the league either tanking or treadmilling or have no hope in hell to win a ring or get better, these teams need all the help they can to retain season ticket holders.
Third, star players will always get calls over non star players, within a pecking order. The average NBA fan tunes in to see the stars, particularly their favorite stars, and that's not going to be fun to pay out the nose to see a game in person if your favorite star player gets fouled out for playing defense in the third quarter. This isn't just an impact on offense, but also on defense. Boston fans pay to see Garnett and Allen and Pierce play, if they hack Lin, part of it is because refs don't want to foul out these players or get them into foul trouble. Game isn't so fun for Celtic faithful if Pierce is on the bench near the end of the game with five fouls and the coach trying to figure out when to put him back in.
Fourth, if your free throw shooting is not predictive, refs can't gauge the impact of giving you free throws to keep a game close. You know Nash will hit 90 plus percent of his free throws. That's reliable. You know Dwight Howard will hit one of two. That's reliable. Lin hits like 70 percent-75 percent. Sometimes he hits two, sometimes he hits one. If he wants better calls, he has to make his free throw shooting more predictive for refs. I'm not saying it's fair or I like it or it's got any integrity to it, but this is how IMHO, the NBA works for superstar calls.
Fifth, Lin is going to have to adjust his game from the road to home. At home, he will get more calls. On the road, to Miami or Boston, it's a different story. On the road he's going to have to shoot more jumpers and let Melo go into isolation more and try to feed Chandler in the post. On the road, you have to be a jump shooting team, this is where refs can't hurt you. You can't get jobbed on a three point attempt. There is no phantom contact they can make up.
Sixth, sadly Lin is going to have flop more. I hate flopping. I hate that so many players do it. But it works, which is why they do it. Lin attracts a lot of non hard core casual fans, who won't see a flop, but will see Lin crash onto the floor, a skinny 23 year old nice Christian Asian boy, with a couple of hulking 6'9 poor educated black guys menacing over him. This is where I agree with another poster, that Lin has to pay some rookie dues, but also D'Antoni has to use the press to protect Lin. All that is needed is for many Asian networks and affiliates to show Lin being hammered over and over by huge black guys, and D'Antoni saying he hopes Lin doesn't get hurt, for the headlines there to say that a bunch of jealous black oversized thugs are beating the hell out of Lin. Lin is worth a billion dollars in marketing potential to the NBA and the foothold to further globalize the game for Stern, do you think he wants the foreign press to run those stories? Good hearted, humble, underdog, who went to the good school and said the right things and is the biggest story in sports is being beaten to a pulp by the thug life wannabe rap star image that Stern has desperately tried to move away from. Stern thinks about the billion dollars, he yells at Silver, who yells at Stu Jackson, who yells at the head of refs, who has no idea what is going on, except that Stern is pissed, he starts yelling, refs worry about losing their raises and perks and then Lin is shooting 10 free throws a game again.
Seventh, D'Antoni is going to have to send Bill Walker out there to throw a forearm in someone's face. Take the technical and get refs to WARN everyone. Then after that, every hack on Lin looks like retaliation , not the standard game plan that it has become. Once the refs warn everyone, they have to enforce that to keep their authority, and Lin gets more calls. And if they don't, it will show up on the JumboTron, for all to see in the highlights, the refs warning both benches and then Lin getting hacked to death. The foreign press picks it up and now the league won't do anything to protect Lin against the common thuggery that has driven away a good chunk of Caucasian, Asian and female potential viewers in the past.
Eighth, eventually Lin is going to have to stick someone in the face. These other players are not falling out of Mensa meetings. Most of them are poorly educated and poorly socialized and it is a hazing process for a rookie. They want to see how much they can hit him and get away with it. Again, this is how the current thug life rap star glitz marketing self promoting chucker NBA behaves. Some players just won't respect him until he draws blood. IMHO, Lin hasn't figured out yet that the refs can't and won't foul him out on defense, they'll get him in foul trouble or toss him if he's blatant or do it at the end of a game that won't matter or isn't close, but in some games, some close ones and national TV ones, they aren't going to call everything. That's when he can smack around players who aren't as marketable. He can kick, jab, elbow, knee, kidney punch, spit, pull and hammer on a Norris Cole or Mario Chalmers. He can't do that to a Wade or a Ray Allen.
I love the Lin story, not only is he an underdog, but he throws the entire reverse racism NBA culture on it's heels. In the NBA, he's the minority. In the NBA, he's the novelty. In the NBA, he has to prove he's twice as good and work four times as hard to get the same credit as some thug life yo who can dunk over a car. The sad thing is Lin wants to play team ball, but the league is not designed for team ball, the league is designed for marketing and profit above all else, and if you want a clean game or clean calls, you have to lobby and manipulate and politic for them like Phil Jackson did.
Lin has to learn to play the "other game" in the NBA that matters for his success. He is right now the most marketable athlete in the entire world and he has to use that leverage and the love of the crowd to his advantage.
