Basketball has become a sport where the whites are the refs and the blacks are the players. Easy to rip on the refs when they are white. But if they were black, then well, they get elected president because you can't criticize them without being a racist.

50 Years ago there was a black league and a white league. It is time to start up the white league again.

When an offensive player pump fakes, the defender jumps straight up in the air, and then the offensive player jumps up into him to draw a foul, that is just stupid. Now if the offensive player pump fakes and the defender jumps into him, that is different. I'm tired of seeing Hedo Turkolu or however you spell his name, try to draw defensive fouls and throw up crazy prayers while attempting to do so. Play basketball for crying out loud.

According to countless ESPN readers polls (which details voting by state), no state hates the Lakers as much Utah. By far. Oregon, Colorado, Texas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire all have plenty of reasons to hate the Lakers. But the state that will always have the highest percentage of any poll that alludes to anything Lakers-related, Utah will be #1 time and time again (for voting against the Lakers).

Jazz fans can hate the Lakers as much as they want. Go ahead and cheer against them. But never, ever, ever play the "ref" card. This is a card that will not only haunt you in return, but is perhaps single-handedly preventing Jazz fans from developing a true love for the game.

Jazz fans have an incredible "entitlement" complex, i.e. they simply feel their team deserves to win, no matter what the circumstance. Talk about the '97 & '98 Finals, and they'll quickly reference a no-call on Jordan's push, or shots that were discounted because of a 24-second clock. Then they quickly forget that Malone was perhaps the #1 beneficiary of eager refs in the history of the NBA...

Your anti-Lakers bias is oozing out of you. When the ref blame game occurs, it is simply revealing that you are in Stage 1 of the grief (from Lakers winning the title) cycle: denial.

But it is classless. It is arrogant at best. This entitlement complex is a complete turn-off. You may not care what others think, but believe me, Jazz fans have earned their reputation among many writers and other metros as the worst opposing fans in the league.

And that's a shame, when you consider how classy the actual Jazz organization is: Larry Miller, Jerry Sloan, Frank Layden, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Jeff Hornacek, et al.

The ref situation is frustrating, and whereas improvements may be made, it never makes the difference in a game. The best team wins, time and time again. A team that finds itself in a close game at the end can't blame a loss on the refs: it shouldn't have left itself that close when calls can be made either way.

The NBA has become "unwatchable"...

The calls these guys make are so ridiculous at times, I literally have to change the channel to keep from throwing my plate of hot-wings at my television.

I played major college basketball, so I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about the game.

When some of these games are on the line, the officials repeatedly call some of the most assinine calls to help out certain players. I have become convinced that the game is rigged and no better than "professional wrestling".

At times its almost as if an official just loves to hear their own whistle blow, so they call some ridiculous call just to feel as though they are part of the game.

No consistency in the madness either. Just go back and watch the clip from the Lakers/Rockets playoff game when Battier gets his head ripped off (split open - blood everywhere) and he gets no call - then 5 seconds later Kobe gets Touched - literally - he gets a shooting foul.

The NBA is a joke, that's one of the reasons they are having such a hard time playing the Euro's now - no special treatment.

The NBA is pro wrestling!

The officiating has been bad for years or at least very inconsistent. To the poster that thinks Jazz fans are the worst fans in the world, get over yourself. Why don't you ask the people in Sacramento how they feel about the Lakers and the questionable calls that went against them in the 2002 WCF. Oh right, because your Lakers won that series so you wouldn't need to have a problem with it.

The Lakers don't care about Utah, thats the funny part. I live in So.Cal, you people here are obsessed with the Lakers but the Lakers and their fans don't care at all about the Jazz. The Celtics yes the Cav's ok, the Magic of course. The Jazz who dat!. When the Lakers lose its about what can we do to fix it. When the Jazz lose its, we hate the Lakers??. Keep that train of thought and you'll never be winners.

The best referees are consistent and the players know or learn quickly how a game is going to be called. While fans may not be able to live with this, the players and coaches can. It is the inconsistent referee that is frustrating to everyone. Players can adjust quickly to how a game is being called. If Kobe is getting all the calls, they know it and while they may not like, they adjust to it and it becomes part of that game. The fans, on the other hand, can't stand it and most observations are from fans.

I stopped watching the NBA about 8 years ago. It's not a sports league anymore. It's an entertainment machine, just like professional wrestling. The only difference is that some people think pro wrestling is legit.

How about just make it simple and don't call a foul unless you actually see one.

...when I played the game what o'Neal does was called traveling.
Basketball has turned way too physical. We need to get back to the days when a hand check that impeeded movement was a foul, when even the marquee players were called for traveling.

Joe Crawford missed enough calls to effect the outcome of an NBA finals game. Hedo Turkoglu continuously holds off the defending players with his off arm and has yet to be called for an offensive foul. Game three a Miami player walk by Joe Crawford and made a basket. The announcer called it Joe missed it the world saw it. That's two points in a 4 point score.