Ah, NBA, how I have loved thee...

Until recently. No one is unaware of my referee bashing, especially in the last NFL season, but some of these refs need to be FIRED.

Watching the Cleveland Cavaliers play at home is nauseating at best. What these zebras are doing to the game is almost disgraceful; it is almost as bad to see them play anywhere else. The series with the Magic has been a prime example. The reason you havent heard from me yet was because the Cavs are heads over heels better than the last teams they have faced in the postseason, but against a notably better team, the Orlando Magic, the Cavaliers have had to rely on their 6th man...

The boys in stripes.

I think it is because the NBA... and David Stern... all want to see LeBron vs. Kobe. The TV ads have been pushing it, both the NBA's own advertisements, and others providers like Nike. Still, to a hardcore sports fan, this is unacceptable. The best team, the one that proves it deserves to win should win the game. Politics run the world, and that includes sports; but a smaller market, lesser known team should never be cast aside in favor of something people would just like to see. This is what XBox is for, so you can play 23 vs. 24 all night long, where the calls don't kill the faith and heart of thousands of fans who see this happening to their team, and are powerless to stop it.

As I write this, the Magic are about to take a 2-1 series lead, (should be 3-0), and Howard just fouled out on what could be the worst call I may have EVER seen. (look it up. It will be on SportsCenter tomorrow. It was that bad.) It was so bad I forgot I was in parenthesis. Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis' heroics in game one were overshadowed, and rarely mentioned by the media, but LeBron's last second buzzer beater in game two has been played at least once every few minutes somewhere across the globe. It probably just passed a couple million or so YouTube hits while I am writing this.

Nothing against LeBron James, ever. He is a player that words cannot really describe. Maybe just simply put, amazing. I was not too young to remember, or even see Michael Jordan play, but I was too young to see the refs look the other way for him. I am a "WITNESS" to this now. The Magic will try to dig out of this hole, but I fear this is all for naught unless Orlando can win the next two games by 40 points, keeping it far enough away so that the officials cannot determine the outcome.

So what is really happening? It seems that the calls are going one way, and you stop to take a look, and realize they REALLY are.

Why was there no retroactive flagrant foul against Mo Williams after he chucked the ball at Howard in game two? Its funny that everyone in the arena saw that happen except the stripes, who took their eyes off the ball for the first time ever. All at once. Where is the NBA, and Stuart Jackson, that were handing out so many retroactive fouls during the first two rounds of the playoffs? They gave more of those away than Chinese Restaurants give free samples in the mall to passers. I know they saw that clip.

In summary, "King James" never fouls, and the rest of the league fouls him if they get within a foot of him. James challenged at least 3 fast break layups / dunks the Magic turned, and hit the hands of the shooter on all of them. All fouls, and one goaltend. Guess which plays didn't get calls? All of them.

I wish Charles Barkley would become an NBA official. He always calls it like it is- "Ball don't lie."