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The randoms: referees shock the world
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A couple of weeks have passed since the beginning of the NBA season, and we already know a few things: the Celtics, Magic, Suns, and Lakers are absurdly dominant; the Grizzlies, T’Wolves, and Knicks are absurdly terrible; and everyone outside of Ohio plastered an evil grin when we saw LeBron turnover the ball in typical “King James careening into players with reckless disregard for safety and going to the foul line” fashion…and didn’t pick up the foul. But, there are still a lot of unknowns out there. Therefore, I bring to you my world famous “Randoms” (translation: Even I have been upset at the lack of articles lately, so, I scribbled down as many thoughts as I could and am calling it an article).
- Is anyone else a tad concerned about Vince Carter’s sprained ankle? I know VC isn’t supposed to be the main man for the Magic, and by no means do I want to make any Grant Hill comparisons, but this worries me. The team is well deep enough to go on without him (as seen in Toronto, in the beat down against the Suns, and the revenge win versus the Pistons), but considering how much we gave up for him, this ankle “strain” seems to be taking much longer to heal than most. Granted, this could be the pessimist side of me, and for all I know, they could be purposely saving him for mid-season when he’s guaranteed 100% healthy, but as each game passes where Vincanity is in a suit, a little more of me misses Courtney Lee.
- Speaking of strained ankles, aren’t we all realizing just how important Ryan Anderson has been to the team? With “The Judge” out (and yes, I call Matt Barnes, “The Jury” and Brandon Bass “The Executioner”), Oklahoma City was able to absolutely dominate away from Dwight Howard. Kevin Durant is an uber-star this early in his career (and the Thunder are actually a really good team), but there’s no way the Magic lose by nearly 30 if Anderson is out on the floor. I pray to the gods of sports injuries that he makes his return soon. Vince, I can handle on the bench. Ryan? That’s when I start hitting the panic button.
- I honestly have no idea what to make of JJ Redick. Filling in for Carter, I was excited to see him step up in the role of starter, even showing us flashes of high scoring ability we all so desperately wanted since his Duke days.
Maybe instead of dropping beats, he should focus on
dropping jump shots.
But lately…(tugs collar). He has been the epitome of inconsistency this season and makes me wonder if the Magic have any interest in re-signing him at the end of the season. Maybe his head is focused on other projects.
- No, seriously, that’s a true story…JJ Redick will come out with a rap album. There are way too many jokes for me to make that I couldn’t possibly have time to talk about anything else (cough, post your jokes below, cough).
- Has anyone checked out the Charlotte Bobcats new jerseys lately? In what seems to be a hybrid look of Orlando and New Orleans, they’ve actually taken a sharp style and made it horrible. The pinstripes, typeface, and color schemes look great on the floors of the Magic and Hornets, but somehow, Larry Brown’s squad ruined it. It honestly looks like Charlotte couldn’t afford more colored fabric, took all the scraps and lined them up.
- Speaking of jerseys, I do not, I repeat, do NOT like the idea of corporate sponsored practice jerseys. I know it’s all the rage over in Europe with all the soccer clubs plastering a giant logo on their chest (something that the WNBA has even taken a liking to), but please keep the commercialism out of the main American leagues. Aren’t we subject enough to every pre, halftime, and post show being sponsored? Don’t we have enough “official” timeouts so that the TV and radio broadcast can run commercials? Can there be any more sponsored t-shirt tosses, or dizzy bat basketball that have corporate ties? And yet, we feel the need to plaster an advertisement on a practice jersey, to remind everyone just how commercialized the league is. I know times are tough and even multi-million dollar corporations are looking to do whatever they can to keep jobs and the workflow going, but please, not on the jerseys itself. I’m not one of those old school, “preserve the history of the game” guys, but can’t we at least keep the uniforms from being like the side of a NASCAR vehicle?
- I know that baseball has been over for quite a while, but I want to harp on just 1 point: we NEED instant replay in baseball. How can football and basketball get it right, but baseball has mistake after mistake affect the outcome of games. Look, MLB umpires are some of the best if not THE best group of officials in any sport, but when blatant fair/foul calls are coming up wrong or when someone steps off a base, is tagged out, and is somehow called safe, we need instant replay. Technology is here for a reason people. We have it, let’s use it! I know there are a lot of purists out there who don’t want to ruin the game, or make it longer than it actually is, but really, is 2 minutes to get a call correct worth it? You’re telling me you don’t want instant replay to lengthen the game if the managers have challenges, or there are “booth reviews”…but you’re ok with a catcher going out to the mound 17 times a game, and sometimes 3 times in one at-bat? You’re fine with managers coming out and arguing balls and strikes for 5 minutes when you KNOW the outcome will just be them thrown out? But how dare we use an HD camera to correctly prove a potential game changing outcome just because you want to go home 5 minutes earlier. I can’t wait for the next generation, ones that used technology, to come into power.
- A few weeks ago, the Magic waived guard Morris Almond, a pre-season signee used to fill in the roster. I waited to mention this because 1) I wanted to see if he would be resigned later on and 2) it’s kind of embarrassing. But, my buddy Tucker and I wanted to have a gimmick at the games. Kind of like the Fat Guy or Orlando’s version of Hulk Hogan that shows up at nearly every game, Tucker and I wanted to don guitars, denim jackets, Morris’ jersey, and creepy mustaches…and call ourselves “the Almond Brothers”. Seriously, we planned this out all pre-season. I know I have a national presence with this article (and even a hatred up in Toronto), but I would rather be up there with the likes of the Hogs at the Redskins games, or the crazy Raider fans in the black hole. Alas, our dreams have been shattered.
- Does anyone else find it a bit depressing that Andre Agassi is revealing all of these tragic stories about his past? From wearing a wig to uphold the “image is everything” gimmick, to an admission of doing meth, to claiming that he tanked games just to get the appearance money, his career now seems dirty. Look, he’ll still be heralded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, and years from now, all we’ll remember are his classic battles with Pete Sampras and his tenacity to win. But when you admit that you hate tennis, it does leave us all feeling a bit disappointed, much like the little pauper boy crying “say it ain’t so, Joe”. What if Tiger Woods comes out years from now and claims how much he hated golf? Just heartbreaking.
- Speaking of heartbreak, reports are coming out that Allen Iverson may no longer be in the league. After immediately coming out as a malcontent in Memphis following his first benching, AI was granted an indefinite leave of absence from the team for “personal reasons”. What a tremendous fall from grace. Since he came into the league in the late 90s, I have always been a fan of Iverson. He played the game full force with energy not seen by any point guard in decades. The Answer was by far the hardest working man in the league for years, and personal distractions aside, he showed more heart than 99% of the league. It’s a shame to see his last few years be tossed aside in Detroit and Memphis. I know he’s aged and isn’t the same player as he was up in Philly, but to see how it’s ending just disappoints everyone who remembers his MVP years just less than a decade ago. And before you ask, no, I don’t want to see him in a Magic uniform. Just because I love the guy and wish he was still a superstar in the league doesn’t mean I want to mess with the chemistry that Orlando has already established.
- I was rifling through the change in my car and noticing that I was accidentally given a Canadian quarter. I honestly have no idea what to do with it now. Do I try to pawn it off as an American quarter? Should I try exchanging it at a bank? Is it really worth it to save it and wait until I make my trip up to the border? It’s by far one of the most perplexing things in life: what to do with just 1 Canadian quarter. I would’ve been better off just losing 25 cents than having this coin. Now I actually have to put forth some form of effort in either saving it or getting rid of it. And even if I gave it to a homeless person, I would still feel guilty that I now have put them in this same conundrum. Or maybe it’s a sign that I need to finally make an appearance up in Toronto…
- All throughout the off-season, we were wondering if the NBA referees would reach an agreement contractually with the NBA. Most of us (especially if you followed the playoffs last year) were ecstatic over the fact that the likes of Steve Javie and Joey Crawford might not grace the court this year! Maybe the officiating would finally be proper and we could worry more about the players than the stripes! We were even treated to a couple of pre-season games with these new replacement refs and waited with anticipation over how well they would treat the game. Then, we started to remember that these new groups of officials were replacements. That is, they weren’t even good enough to become an NBA referee already.
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I can't believe I'm saying this, but, I'm glad to see Joey
Crawford back!
As apparent by the first Magic pre-season games (when about 78 fouls were calls, roughly 97% of the points scored were from free-throws, 42 technical fouls were issued, and Dwight Howard fouled out 30 seconds into the game), this season was teetering on the brink of the worst officiating ever.
But after some shrewd negotiating, the referees we’ve all come to hate are back. However, something’s different…something just isn’t right…
They’re actually competent. Through roughly two weeks of games, I have yet to be outraged over the lack of non-calls and the stars getting preferential treatment. Yes, there are still a few mishaps I’ve noticed, but that happens in every game. After a horrid pre-season, the games that count are, for the most part, about the game itself! I can’t believe I’m saying this, but, I’m actually glad to see these guys back! Now, I know we’re only been 8 or so games in, and there’s still an entire season to go…and maybe I’m a bit blind because it’s not the playoffs and I’m not meticulously analyzing every single play…and maybe this infatuation with them stems from the fact that the pre-season was an abomination, so, anything would seem better (kind of like how you losing $100 in blackjack doesn’t seem as bad when you’re buddy just dropped $3k and is now pawning off his HD TV…you still lost $100, that’s a bad thing, but, relation, you can live with it), but for the time being, I believe the NBA referees are shocking the world with how correct their calls have been. The only problem is, they should’ve been doing that all along.
--- Got a question? Disagree with the article? Want to be included in the reader mailbag?: E-Mail Kenny at MagicExaminer@yahoo.com ---
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