http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=230205014
From playing basketball myself, with games often officiated by individuals who should never be given a whistle and a striped shirt, I admit I'm fairly pro-player/coach, anti-official in these kinds of situations. Still, this caught my eye.
"It's not about you," Stafford shouted at Riley. "Go on TV crying."
Any time we mention crying in that context, we're basically telling someone that we want them to "shut up and stop your bitching", because we are irritated by their complaints. But I think when a person such as a sports official uses those words, they are showing bias. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but when Derrick Stafford said that, it sounded more like "You're a complainer, we're not ever going to be charitable in our calls when you're involved, no matter how much you publically complain." Fair call? In a way, yes, publically blasting an official is not a great strategy in a professional sporting league. An unbiased official? Hardly.
Referees are only human, so they are subject to the same faults that we all are, faults we classify as being human nature. Riley's stance on the officiating is certainly not going to result in a good relationship with NBA referees. But Riley's reaction to what he feels is injustice is also human nature. The only difference is, Riley can be fined for submitting to human nature, officials can't.
Same as the whole Rasheed Wallace business. The league admitted that there was no physical contact, and the suspension (which was the largest for an incident that did not involve physical contact, and more than twice as long as Chris Mills' suspension for his post-game actions which required police assistance) was handed down due to his Sheed's past. I don't know about any other country's legal system, but in Australia, past convictions and charges cannot be used when trying or sentencing an offender. The same should go for pro sports, where players like Sheed are guilty until proven innocent. That's not to say Sheed wasn't in the wrong, but there was never any consideration that the official did anything wrong either. It was alleged that the official responded to Sheed - I'm sure he wasn't pulled aside and told "In the future, don't respond in that way."
I guess it's ironic that Riley would be complaining about not getting calls when the opposing team was the Blazers, a team with an even worse rapport with the officials. I'm surprised the free throw attempts weren't closer for the two teams - along the lines of zero apiece.
