Will the referees give Jerry Sloan "retribution" against the Celtics?

by moneyman memo on Mar 22, 2010 7:31 AM MDT

Okay, so we now know from the SLtrib blog that Coach Sloan avoided any punishment for getting intimate with referee Michael Smith on Friday night's game in Phoenix.

It is 2010 and knowing what we now know about disgraced former ref Tim Donaghy's stories, do you guys think we are in for some referee retribution tonight against the Celtics? I'll definitely be recording this game and watching closely.

Now I don't believe all of what Donaghy alleges, but there are certain aspects that are so close to what I have seen in games to not be true (or at least seem a little fishy). Specific examples include superstar treatment by the refs, calling fouls inconsistently from game to game, and make-up calls. In particular, I found the anecdote about Steve Javie and Allen Iverson interesting. To recap, Iverson made some comments about Javie and was fined $25k by the league. Here's what Donaghy had to say in his book:

"The league fined Iverson $25,000 for his comments, but most of the league referees thought the punishment was too lenient and were upset he wasn't suspended. As a result, we collectively decided to dispense a little justice of our own, sticking it to Iverson whenever we could."

Is it possible that we could see the refs give the Jazz and/or specifically Jerry Sloan some "justice" tonight against one of the league's favorite teams? We all have watched the Celtics and their tenacious style of defense in the past two seasons. They grab, hold, and bump people and get away with it. Why? Because they are widely BELIEVED to be the best defensive team. It's a self-reinforcing dogma, and as a result you see KG and Perkins set moving screens EVERY SINGLE POSSESSION and rarely get called for it. Just type a search in on YouTube and you'll see video evidence of all the illegal screens (and believe me, they are blatant shoves) that KG sets.

I had originally predicted tonight would be a win (see my previous fanpost predicting the last 20 games), but I have to change my prediction now. My hunch is we're going to see at least 2 technical fouls from the Jazz side and multiple players are going to be in foul trouble. Given the fact that AK and Memo are likely scratches tonight, we are going to have to dig deep and get lucky to score a victory. This is the same Celtics team that just beat Dallas in their home. Let's hope that doesn't occur tonight in ours.

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.

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i thought that it was a pretty fairly called game

both teams had about an evenly amount of calls against them. they made a few bad calls and did a few bad no calls but you can’t get everything right. good job refs

by rodanelcoolio on Mar 22, 2010 10:33 PM MDT reply actions

I thought the reffing was horrible

phantom fouls on Memo and Kyle Korver
no fouls called on Perkins for shoving CJ on that break, or tackling Deron on the screen at half-court and the gumption to call a block on Booze after the switch…what a joke.
The Celts played like thugs and the refs called the phantom fouls on the JAzz? seriously? I’m glad we prevailed in spite of that kind of crap.

I'll make it coach.

by MTN on Mar 22, 2010 10:38 PM MDT reply actions

thank goodness for the 3rd quarter

That was some sharp execution by our boys last night. I was dancing and hollering like a madman every time the Moneyman struck in the 3rd quarter.

Have to agree with MTN. For a while there in the 1st half I thought that we were in for a long night….the only thing consistent about the refereeing was that they were calling a foul every single trip down the floor. I mean, hell – Koufos had to play extended minutes. I was getting really nervous for a while there.

Not sure overall if the refs called a good game or not. They called it both ways but there were some seriously questionable no-calls and some awful ticky-tack/phantom calls. Thank goodness for our 3-point shooting – it bought us a cushion. I seriously think that we went to the 3-pointer in the 3rd quarter because we weren’t getting anything inside.

by moneyman memo on Mar 23, 2010 10:04 AM MDT reply actions