Jason Whitlock: NBA Playoffs Are The Old White Man's 'Police State'

That might be true, but Whitlock is the leader of the "ban the prison and hip hop culture, it is ruining black America" band so among other things he is a hypocrite and a fraud for now whining about David Stern's efforts to clean up the league and for ripping NBA ref's and Stern for having the very same concerns.

 

Whitlock is a man with no principals. He just rides the going sentiment of the moment for what it's worth.

 

Then rips C. Vivian Stringer for doing the same thing

 

I seem to remember Rondo and Kirk getting into a brawl earlier this year

 

I know this is sacrelige, but I found Simmons take on the playoffs, and refereeing, interesting.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090528&sportCat=nba

 

Problem is, like many Simmons pieces, you have to wade through a thousand superfluous words to get to the good stuff (the shit about his own pickup hoops career was insanely unnecessary). But I did like how he addressed the same point I was trying to make earlier with this paragraph:


That testosterone fueled the NBA in its heyday. My favorite game ever (and not just because Boston won) was Game 4 of the 1984 Finals, the ultimate example of stacked teams battling with an extra edge. I rewatched it last summer and couldn't get over how it would have been wrecked today. McHale gets tossed for the Rambis clothesline. Bird gets T'd for nudging Cooper out of bounds. Kareem gets tossed for nearly slicing off Bird's wispy mustache with an elbow. Maxwell gets T'd for walking across the lane and choking himself after Worthy's missed free throw. On the crucial play of OT, when Magic gets switched onto Bird and they fight for position down low -- with Bird finally draining a turnaround over Magic's mug -- the officials would have called Magic for a foul before Bird's shot happened. Six of the iconic moments of the game ... ruined. Could they have competed as hard with the current rules? No.


He's absolutely right. Game 4 in 84 is one of the most memorable in NBA history. But if it were played under today's officiating guidelines it would've devolved into an endless procession to the free throw line and several stars would've been suspended for Game 5. The current guidelines might be preventing the public from seeing any more ugly brawls, but I wonder if Stern ever considers how many missed great moments they might also be stifling.

 

The Simmons piece, while a bit long, was about 1,000 times better than Whitlock's take.

And a lot more intellectually consistent too.

 

Really? If I had Scott Wedman and Jamaal Wilkes whispering hints in my ear, I could not name one detail from that game, including who won.

It's memorable to a Bostonophobe like Simmons who thinks the world revolves around The Hub.

 

Really? I'm not a Boston fan, but that's one I remember more clearly than about any from my childhood. Lot of memorable moments long replayed occurred in that game.