interesting stuff taken from ross siler's jazz blog

Written before Game 4 about the trio of refs:
http://blogs.sltrib.com/jazz/2008/05/no-delaney-no-javie-but-two-homers.htm

"...Actually, according to the site, Corbin and DeRosa are the two best "homer" refs in the NBA this season. Against the spread, home teams are 44-23-0 with Corbin and 47-26-2 with DeRosa. It's only 9:30 a.m., but the Jazz already have caught one break."

after watching the jazz take 20 more FTs, how many of us can agree with this line?

*raises hand*

Posted by: CBuck | May 13, 2008 at 10:08 AM

Nice find CBuck. I second that thought.

I saw Bynum Skydiving on Saturday and though he looked funny in goggles his knee looked real good.

Get well Bynum and see you next year!

BD

Great.

Yoga.

Video.

Actually, I don't know how beneficial Dit Da Jow is for backs. It's primarily for bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and inflammation.

I'm not sure how well it works for pinched nerves and such.

GO LAKERS!

Posted by: Jon K. | May 13, 2008 at 10:59 AM

The back contains numerous bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Lower back injuries are experienced by the majority of people according to the article below:

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sprainsstrains/a/lowback.htm

Kobe's injury is almost certainly musculoskeletal. Soreness indicates a muscular component. With Kobe's mechanism of injury you can safely rule out a spinal cord injury. Injuries to nerves can occur traumatically, but usually a fairly dramatic event is required (like a deep laceration or forceful impact like in a motor vehicle accident).

Bring on the Dit Ja Dow.

Pain is an evolutionarily ancient negative feedback mechanism to modify behavior and induce lowered activity levels in the case of injury. It's important that Kobe pay attention to his body as well as doing what he can to alleviate the pain. The pain is likely meaningful, not just a nuisance. Pain is very important to survival and health. Without pain receptors, individuals typically die in horrific accidents by their early teenage years.

From what I've seen, Kobe is extremely good at managing injuries without exacerbating them. He plays through injuries not just like a tough guy, but also like a smart guy. I have absolute faith in Kobe to manage this injury well.

Charles,

Sometime the ladies jock, sometimes they don't. I brought the A game, she felt it, we went from there.

I feel like I should starting making it rain (tipping ($)) refs after getting fair calls, so we don’t have to put up with the debauchery of games 3 and 4. It was utterly ridiculous. Seriously, Lakers 2 – Guys in stripes 2.

I gotta say... I'm all about the yoga. I started doing yoga about 10 years ago for a bad back and I'm still doing it every day. It was the only thing that let me get back to playing basketball.

Stern is clearly all about the bottom line. He's also clearly fascistic in his tight management of the league, notably complaints about officiating in the last few years (prior to Tim Donaghy).

I don't trust Stern as he's a businessman that seems to view profit above all else. I see almost all of his moves being perception management and pursuing growth opportunities.

Were it the case that Stern coerced officials to make each series last longer I would not be surprised. I don't think it takes a significant tweak to achieve this result.

I think greater transparency in officiating is vital. The Donaghy case just proves that officials can change the game in meaningful ways without being detected for extended periods of time.

I'd like to see the NBA become much more like the NFL which in my limited exposure seems to have excellent officiating. I think every team should have at least 2 challenges a game in dead ball situations. Given how many time stoppages there are in an NBA game, it would not significantly slow the game or further inhibit a smoothly flowing form. I think the slight compromise is well worth it in order to protect the integrity of the game and the officiating.

I also would like better officiating so players and coaches don't complain about every single, frickin call. I find that politicking incredibly annoying and dishonest.

Interestingly, the Lakers have complained a lot less in the playoffs following Kobe's lead (after Den game 1, of course). It doesn't make a ton of sense to complain because the refs basically never change their minds. It is worth telling a ref what a guy is doing if he misses a foul call, however.

(That ought to solve any lingering "Hip to be Square" resentment...)

No. I'm not even close to ready to let that one go. You made a pop cultural reference, BUT AT WHAT PRICE???

Benjamin

'a Pig isn’t dirty"

As a former pig farmer, trust me, pigs have a well deserved rep.

But even a Jazz Fan can be trained to shower once and awhile so you could draw the conclusion that they are not dirty, but you would be wrong.

Pot bellied pigs? They are definitely cleaner than Jazz Fans and unlike Jazz Fans they can be domesticated into a nice little pet, and be house trained as well.

For further reference on Jazz Fans (see The Simpsons; Cletus Family)

Men...another day before Game 5...

whew...well atleast I found some respect for our MVP from no other than the other brother ...Dave Chapelle.

enjoy..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ntm10R_-Jo

CBuck,

"goes without saying, i can't wait. ...i'm actually replaying the game in my dreams (creepy, i know) but the good news is, we always win :)"

Yea, happens to me too. Or I will play as if I was Kobe by myself on a b-ball court, with the announcers words running through my head. Either that, or NBA Live, Utah vs. LA.

Although I totally agree that NBA coaches should be able to force a review like NFL coaches, I have to respectfully disagree with you that all it take is a minor tweak by Stern to coerce officials.

Just think about all of the collusion that would be necessary to achieve this. Stern obviously couldn't do it alone, and do you really think Stern, or any other reasonable businessman, would include these minions in his maser scheme and risk everything? It only takes one person to bring it all crumbling down, if that were the case, and that's just not sensible.

Posted by: Lumbee | May 13, 2008 at 02:15 PM

I'm saying a minor tweak in officiating and a close series can be manipulated by officiating. I could totally imagine referees getting subtle hints like (games 3 and 4 allow the Jazz to be physical). You act as though no conspiracy involved money has ever succeeded.

As for one person bringing it down, that's complete idle speculation on your part. You don't know that at all.

And if one person can bring the whole thing crashing down, how was Stern so easily able to weather the Tim Donaghy storm?

I'm not suggesting that anything is occurring, but there's no question in my mind that the motives are in place (money for the league, more exposure for the product) and I don't trust Stern's character. When creative, effective, and intelligent people in positions of power, particularly when there is no group that can review their actions, well, you can get a little bit of what you want.

There is a long history of conspiracies to cheat in professional sports. I don't assume that The Black Socks throwing the series, the Arizona Wildcats point-shaving scandal, steroids in MLB, a coverup of videotape cheating by Bellichek in the NFL and any others that people have heard about are the only ones that have transpired. To suggest otherwise strikes me as extraordinarily naive.

Now, I'm not sure a league-wide conspiracy has ever been revealed. Do you think every journalist that finds out about such a thing would willingly reveal it?

For the David Stern thing, all you need is one guy giving orders to a few select officials. It could be very tightly administered.

Greetings Laker Nation and of course to the Brothers K! Glad that Turiaf was not suspended, it was a correct assessment by the league. However, in my opinion it was NOT a Flagrant 2 by NBA rules if you look at the foul on replay and/or slow motion. Price went to the hoop fast, hard and out of control. In replay slo-mo Price throws his body with his head down and not looking at the hoop or inevitable impact coming. Its as if he was expecting to get bumped at a certain angle and just bounce off Turiaf's body landing on his feet or just stumbling at worst. Unfortunately Price landed horribly by bouncing his head off the floor and gashing his head open. Turiaf's intent was not to hurt him and he DID go for the ball as the replay clearly shows. I believe it was a serious knee-jerk panicked overreaction by the refs for several reasons:

I think that the refs panicked when they saw the blood and must NOT have reviewed the play in slo-mo which they could of done. But if they DID reveiw the replay in slo-mo and regular speed and still concluded it was a Flagrant 2, I beleive that they simply panicked because of the Utah crowd's loud and intimidating emotional reaction (anyone remember the "classy Utah fans" that chucked a couple of beverages on the floor when the Lakers wiped them out at home during the regular season this year?) and because they were afraid of what David Stern and company would have done to them had they made the less severe and more correct call. So I think they purposely took the "keep our jobs safe" way out by overpenalizng Turiaf .Remember, their are at minimum 13 more games to officiate until NBA champs are crowned. And I don't think for a second the referees want those higher paychecks to stop coming if they are one of the lucky few to get picked for the NBA's postseason.. Stern removing one or all of this crew from the Playoffs for the rest of the postseason meant no more checks for the rest of the postseason and, more importantly a bad stain on their performance rating which can ensure you won't be selected to be a postseason ref again ever. Just my take on it. Regardless of the fact that many Trolls and haters probably now see Turiaf as a "goon out to hurt other players" we LFFL's (LakerFansForLife), know that Ronnie is not that type of person from interviews, confirmed stories, etc.... It doesn't surprise us, we the Laker Nation that Turiaf felt bad for Price and was sorry Price was injured. We know he's a decent person on and off the court. Regarding game 5, still sticking to my prediction before this series started.... Lakers win game 5 and then win a tight game 6 in Utah to close out the series in six games. I believe the bench, Gasol, Farmer and maybe even Radmonovic (he's due to break out as a pure shooter sooner or later as he's sleptwalk through the last 2 games) will bounce back beginning tonight by winning big and helping Kobe by looking to relieve him of having to score 30 or 40 points. I think that being beaten by Utah 2 straight has opened this young team's eyes to the fact that when you get this deep in the Playoffs, you BETTER be able to enforce your will on the opponen's home gym by successfully executing your offensive and defensive game plans that won your home games. And execute them under hostile conditions with double the energy you expend at home. We'lll be fine LakerNation, this team is more athletic AND talented than the Jazz's roster and PJ will make the proper adjustments to the game plans. Heck I know it's 2-2 but we ALL know, (including Laker Haters and Jazz fans) that this was darn close to a Laker sweep. I too, don't believe in "moral" victories as they are called, but you HAVE to acknowledge for ALL that did go wrong in Salt Lake City's 2 games (Turiaf suspension, Jazz overly physical play at times that went unchecked, Deron's non-travelling call at crucial moment in game 4, etc.....) we almost won both of them! Until next time, all the best to LakerNation and true Laker and NBA fans!

Jeff A Ho....has been going from site to site posting the same response...he has the same post on Kevin Ding's blog at the OC Register...

Here is Kevin's reply to him and for some of you who are still thinking Kobe blew his defensive assignments.

# KEVIN DING Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 2:45 am

Point of accuracy for Jeffs: The Lakers planned to have Bryant roaming on defense from the start — they wanted to be very aggressive on defense, and it worked to great effect with Utah piling up 15 first-half turnovers — and four of Brewer’s early points came when Radmanovic failed to play proper team defense and cover for Bryant. One of the plays was a basic switch when Utah’s players exchange positions along the baseline, but Radmanovic kept chasing Kirilenko while Bryant switched to Kirilenko. The Lakers’ coaches were none too pleased with Radmanovic, not Bryant.