Rumeal Robinson makes it rain waaaaay too much

Stoney, I gotta disagree with you on that one. Now, as a Laker fan who's watched that game about 85 times, I'm admittedly biased. But I really don't see a walk here, just after the 4 minute mark:

The Lakers get the ball back with 12 seconds after Bird's famous three. To me it looks like Kareem puts the ball down while he's pivoting, didn't look egregious to me. Now, did the ball on Kareem's missed free throw really go off the Celtics? That is pretty questionable.

My favorite terrible call from the '80s rivalry is the following December, right before Magic's one-legged bank shot. The Lakers grab a missed free throw and the refs somehow give them the timeout, even though there's no way in hell they had possession. Magic then hit his shot.

Just after 5 minutes. Horrific call. But lovely.

And just because we need to see how that game ended.

 

We pay our maid $60 for three hours.

 

Speaking of bad calls in the Lakers' favor, let's not forget Isiah Thomas being crushed by Magic in the final seconds of Game 7 of the '88 Finals. That's after there's a cameraman, the entire Lakers team and about 500 fans on the court for the inbounds pass with two seconds left and the Pistons down by three. Laimbeer actually had to make the fullcourt inbounds pass OVER a CBS cameraman.
And there's absolutely NO acknowledgement of any of this by the CBS announcers.

(This is the last 10 minutes, real-time, of the game. Couldn't find anything shorter).

 

When I see that Hawks logo, I see an oyster with one tooth.

 

Looks like I have to fly in and defend the Lakers' honor again.

I know Pistons fans have been harping on this - and Isiah's ankle injury - for 22 years (although they rarely seem to mention that Scott missed all of the 1989 Finals and Magic played a game and a half, yet the Lakers still had fourth-quarter leads in Games 2-4. Considering the Lakers had been unbeaten going into the Finals, I think Magic and Scott would have had more of an impact in those fourth quarters than David Rivers and Tony Campbell. But I digress).

That actually was a bizarre ending to the game and the refs definitely lost control after Green's layup made it a three-point game. It's not surprising that the announcers didn't mention it because Stockton and Billy Cunningham were fairly clueless with big picture things, or, in this case, obvious things happening right in front of them. Certainly the floor should have been cleared and the Pistons allowed to throw the ball inbounds under legitimate circumstances. That's one issue and a huge one. A much bigger one than the alleged foul on Magic.

I say this as an acknowledged Lakers homer but I really believe it (okay, maybe that's a contradiction), Magic didn't foul him. Definitely didn't crush him. He ran past him as Isiah was dribbling. Remember Isiah had the horribly sprained ankle, was limping all the time. It's not like he had to be touched or fouled to fall down and I don't see how from that angle, anyone can say for certain Magic hacked him. Looks to me like Magic is standing there and an off-balance Isiah stumbles when he flies past. To show how far TV's come since this, I've never seen another angle of that play. Today we'd have six different angles so could tell for certain what happened.

But, even if Magic did foul him, it wasn't a shooting foul. More importantly, even if the refs had botched the call and somehow called it a shooting foul, the NBA at the time did not award three free throws for fouls on 3-pointers. They didn't start doing that until the 1994-95 season. So no matter what Isiah would have only had two foul shots. He would have had to make the first, then miss the second and try for the tip in to tie.

But forget all that. Go back to Laimbeer. He stepped over the line on his pass! An obvious violation that wasn't called. He's falling in and his leg goes over the line as he's passing it, a big no-no.

So, yes, the floor should have been cleared. But if there's going to be an argument about Magic fouling Isiah, it should be remembered that Laimbeer's violation happened first and Isiah shouldn't have even had a chance to catch the ball.

End Defense of Showtime Part 25.

 

All you posters with maids must be the non-journalists on the board. And if you're not, I don't want to hear about it. </grumbling>