Refs are robbing us of a great NBA Finals

by Mitch Lawrence, Special to FOXSports.com

BOSTON

We’ve got a nice Finals here. We’ve got the NBA’s two flagship franchises.

We’ve got the Celtics and the Lakers, with more history than the 28 other teams combined. We’ve got Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Boston’s Big Three, and some kid named Rajon Rondo who’s turning out to be as much of a game-changer as all the big names up on the marquee.

Now, would somebody over at the league office kindly inform the refs who are working this series to stop screwing it all up?

Because if the refs continue to make a mockery of the games, the NBA is going to see its fans start abandoning the Finals and switching over to Flyers-Blackhawks.

Or NCAA women’s softball games.

I can’t say I really blame ‘em if they do.

Here’s what we’ve seen in the first two games of what should be a memorable Finals:

We had Game 1 go an interminable 2 hours and 48 minutes. That was not even an overtime game. Yet it dragged on longer than a hair restoration commercial at three in the morning. It featured 54 fouls and 67 free throws by both teams.

Right after the crew of Joe Crawford, Joe DeRosa and Derrick Stafford put its imprint on the opener, a memo with the game tape should have been sent to the Game 2 crew of Monty McCutchen, Mike Callahan and Ken Mauer, reading: Gentlemen, do not give us a repeat, under any circumstances!

read more