Dallas vs. Miami... Who wins the NBA Finals? (Heat wins series 4-2)

[Vintage]

Wade will make Dallas pay for choking away games 3 and 5.

Dallas almost had the series at 3-0. Then they choked it away...

Heat in 6. Shaq Diesel will dominate tonite. Wade, well...Dallas can't stop him.

 

[Vintage]

Oh wow, I never even thought about this, but Terry got fouled on the last shot in regulation. Guess who hacked him?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....

Terry had an open look when he caught the inbound pass. He instead then set the play up, drove, and was left with a falling fadeaway.

Dallas let it slip away.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

right...and just like SA wasn't quite good enough...neither were the mavs.

deal with it.

Series isn't over with.

Deal with it.

- Mike G.

 

[SA_Gunslinger]

Series isn't over with.

Deal with it.

- Mike G.

i'm not saying it is, but game 5 is....mavs lost....move on.

 

[peplaw06]

right...and just like SA wasn't quite good enough...neither were the mavs.

deal with it.

What's your point?? I'm talking about one game, not an entire series... Over the course of the series, the best team usually wins. It's ridiculous to say one team wasn't good enough when the margin was one point, and one team made two free throws with 1.9 seconds left to go up by that margin. To say Dallas wasn't good enough is ludicrous.

 

[peplaw06]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....

Terry had an open look when he caught the inbound pass. He instead then set the play up, drove, and was left with a falling fadeaway.

Dallas let it slip away.

Blah blah blah... Is that all you can say when showed yet another picture of irrefutable evidence that NBA refs are consistently the worst of any major sport??

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Wow....

Rumors are coming out of Miami last night that after the game, Mark Cuban found David Stern in the stands, pointed at him, stared him down, and said "F you, F you, this thing is rigged"

Damn

LINK

Figured you might find this on interest.

Cuban fined $250,000 for Game 5 outbursts
By JAIME ARON, AP Sports Writer
June 20, 2006

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, right, talks with fans before Game 2 of the NBA basketball finals in Dallas on June 11, 2006. Cuban was fined $250,000 by the NBA on Tuesday, June 20, 2006, for his outburst following Game 5 of the finals after Dallas lost 101-100 in overtime to the Miami Heat in Miami on Sunday, June 18.
AP - Jun 20, 3:07 pm EDT
More Photos

DALLAS (AP) -- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $250,000 by the NBA on Tuesday for his outbursts following Game 5 of the NBA finals.

Cuban was cited for "several acts of misconduct" committed after Dallas lost 101-100 in overtime to the Heat in Miami on Sunday night.

Furious with several calls, Cuban went onto the floor to vent directly to official Joe DeRosa. He then stared down and screamed toward commissioner David Stern and a group of league officials, from the court, then the stands. He later used profanity during a postgame session with the media.

The fine was announced hours before the Mavericks played host to the Heat in Game 6 of the NBA finals. Miami led the series 3-2.

Cuban said Monday he was bracing for the fine, his second this postseason. It showed in his reaction to the penalty: "I'm fine with it," he wrote in an e-mail. "Get the humor there. Fine with it."

uban has been fined at least $1,455,000 since buying the team in January 2000. The exact total of his punishment tab isn't known because the league doesn't always publicize action against team owners. Cuban says he matches every dollar with a charitable donation.

This also marks the 10th known time that Cuban has been penalized. The biggest fine was $500,000 in January 2002 for comments that included saying he wouldn't hire the league's head of officiating to manage a Dairy Queen.

Since then, the only other acknowledged fine came last month, when he was assessed $200,000 -- $100,000 each for going onto the court during a playoff game in San Antonio and for an entry on his blog criticizing the way the league selects officials for the playoffs.

The NBA said it would have no further comment on this matter.

Also Tuesday, Cuban posted a blog entry in response to a column in the Miami Herald that quoted him as saying, "Your league is rigged" during his tirade after Game 5.

"That's a complete insult to the players on the court and the incredible amount of effort they put into preparing for and playing the games," he wrote. "The NBA couldn't rig the games if it wanted to. And it doesn't want to. It's that simple."

He wrote that he hates the idea of any wrongdoing, calling each theory "a business hole I have to work harder to dig us out of."

His solution: Better explanations by the league of what happened and why.

"I think it would help the perception of our game," he wrote. "I think it would help fans better understand not only the rules of the NBA, but also the nuances, strategies and challenges of the game."

 

[Danny White]

I'm very happy he got punished for this, but the league really needs to hit this clown where it hurts, i.e. suspend him from attending the next game.

And before you say they can't do it, yes they can. The commissioner could definitely suspend him from attending.

This guy needs to be taught a lesson.

NBA fines Mavs' owner $250,000

DALLAS - Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $250,000 by the NBA on Tuesday for his outbursts following Game 5 of the NBA finals.

Cuban was cited for "several acts of misconduct" he committed after Dallas lost 101-100 in overtime to the Heat in Miami on Sunday night.

Furious with several calls, Cuban went onto the floor to vent directly to official Joe DeRosa. He then stared down and screamed toward commissioner David Stern and a group of league officials, from the court, then the stands. He later used profanity during a postgame session with the media.

Announcement of the fine came hours before Game 6 of the NBA finals in which the Mavericks trail the Heat 3-2.

Cuban said Monday he was bracing for the fine, his second this postseason. He also was assessed $200,000 during the second round for going onto the court and for an entry on his blog criticizing the way the league selects officials for the playoffs.

Since buying the team in January 2000, Cuban has been fined at least $1,405,000; he's matched every dollar with a charitable donation.

The exact total of his punishment tab isn't known because the league doesn't always publicize punishments against team owners.

The league said it would have no further comment on this matter. Cuban did not immediately reply to an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Earlier Tuesday, Cuban posted a blog entry in response to a column in the Miami Herald that quoted him as saying, "The league is rigged" during his tirade after Game 5.

"That's a complete insult to the players on the court and the incredible amount of effort they put into preparing for and playing the games," he wrote. "The NBA couldn't rig the games if it wanted to. And it doesn't want to. It's that simple."

He wrote that he hates the idea of any wrongdoing, calling each theory "a business hole I have to work harder to dig us out of."

His solution: better explanations by the league of what happened and why.

"I think it would help the perception of our game," he wrote. "I think it would help fans better understand not only the rules of the NBA, but also the nuances, strategies and challenges of the game."

 

[WoodysGirl]

I knew I was right... I feel validated now.

Updated: June 20, 2006, 3:02 PM ET
NBA: No backcourt violation on inbounds to Wade


DALLAS -- The NBA said Tuesday that there was no backcourt violation on the play that led to Dwyane Wade's winning free throws in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

After the Miami Heat's 101-100 overtime victory over Dallas on Sunday night, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said an assistant coach showed him a tape that led his team to believe that Wade should have been called for a turnover when he caught an inbounds pass to begin the possession.

"My understanding from the rule book is, if you are going to catch the ball in the backcourt, you have to be in the backcourt to catch it," Cuban said.

Not true, according to Rule 4, Section VI, which deals with frontcourt/backcourt.

Replays showed that Wade leaped near midcourt to catch the ball in the air, landing with possession in the backcourt.

Part of the rule states that, "frontcourt/backcourt status is not attained until a player with the ball has established a positive position in either half during a throw-in in the last 2 minutes of the fourth period and/or any overtime period."

Because Wade was in the air when he caught the ball, league spokesman Tim Frank said his position wasn't determined until he landed. And since another rule allows for the ball to be thrown into the backcourt at that time, there was no violation.

"I knew I was straight," Wade said Tuesday morning after shootaround. "I know the rules. I knew it wasn't a backcourt."

Cuban was fined $250,000 by the league on Tuesday for his actions after the game.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2006/news/story?id=2492756
​

 

[peplaw06]

I'm very happy he got punished for this, but the league really needs to hit this clown where it hurts, i.e. suspend him from attending the next game.

And before you say they can't do it, yes they can. The commissioner could definitely suspend him from attending.

This guy needs to be taught a lesson.

I guess the First Amendment means nothing to you. And no... I don't think the Commissioner could prevent the Owner from attending his teams' games. The Tickets are not sold by the NBA, they're sold by the individual teams. Now Cuban could probably keep Stern from the game, but I don't think it can go vice versa. And before you say Stern is Cuban's boss, that's wrong too. The owners are the ones who have most of the control. They're the shareholders in the NBA. They're the ones who hire Stern.

 

[peplaw06]

BTW... this piece by Bill Simmons is linked on Cuban's blog. It's a great read... long, but it's great. He talks about how the NBA was changing from a Superstars' league (what we had in the 90s with Jordan) to a league of great TEAMS (this decade's Spurs, Pistons, and Mavs) ... Really good stuff. I'm going to quote some of the best stuff here.


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060620

Here's what happens if Miami wins the title: New Jersey will say to themselves, "Hey, maybe this could happen to us with Vince Carter"; Washington will say the same about Arenas; Boston with Pierce; G-State with Richardson; the Lakers with Kobe; New Team X with Iverson. And so on and so on. But that's just the thing ... we went through this last decade. There was only one MJ; the formula couldn't be replicated. Same with Dwyane Wade; only LeBron can match him. And everyone else will fail trying, which means we can look forward to another decade of perimeter scorers going 11 for 32 in big games, teammates standing around while stars dribble at the top of the key waiting to challenge two defenders at once, and refs deciding every big game (like in Game 5) by how they interpret contact when the same guy is recklessly driving to the basket over and over again. Does any of this sound fun to you? I didn't think so.

...

Remember when I wrote that, on a scale of 1-to-10 about being excited for the moment when Stern handed Cuban the trophy, I was a 35? Now I'm a 72.

...

I tackled this in a Cowbell blog last year, but it's worth rehashing again: The NBA doesn't fix games. That's impossible. And stupid. It could never happen. (Well, except for the Hubert Davis game -- that was fixed. Just kidding. Kind of.) A few months ago, I looked David Stern in the eye and asked him about the ongoing officiating problems, and he seemed agonized enough about it that I actually believed him. Unless he was pulling a DeNiro-level acting performance on me. Which I doubt. But there are three major problems here.


First, Dwyane Wade shot as many free throws (25) as the entire Dallas team in Game 5. I just don't see how there's any way this can happen in a fairly-called game. It's theoretically impossible.


Second, everyone knew the officiating would be a problem heading into this series because of Cuban's past problems with the league. In my Finals preview, I wrote that "No team depends on the refs quite like the Heat. When the refs are calling all the bumps on Shaq and protecting Wade on every drive, they're unstoppable. When they're calling everything fairly, they're eminently beatable. If they're not getting any calls, they're just about hopeless. I could see the refs swinging two games in Miami's favor during this series, possibly three. In fact, I'm already depressed about it and the series hasn't even started yet." Well, we had our two games -- Game 3 (the last five minutes were just obscene) and Game 5 (again, a top-five debacle). And the series isn't over yet.


Third, here's a theory on referees that I described in a blog last spring:
"I don't think the NBA fixes games, but they have one trick that they use for situations like this -- when they want a home team to win the game, they invariably assign the worst referees possible to that game for two reasons: Bad referees have a tendency to get swayed by the home crowd, and bad referees never have the stones to make a tough call on the road. In a related story, I went to 35 Clippers games this year and kept a list of the referees in my pocket which I also used to follow the referees for any televised games. And yes, the referees in the NBA -- as a whole -- have never been worse. But there were six referees that stuck out as being especially terrible."


Then I went on to list the worst six referees. Here was No. 2 on the list:
"2. Bennett Salvatore [my add: the ref behind Wade in the pics HH has posted] -- Always one of the worst, he took it to another level this season. If you see him on the court at the start of the game, get ready for about six technicals, two near-brawls and both coaches having to be restrained by their assistants at various times."


Why is this relevant? Not only did Salvatore officiate Game 4 of the Suns-Lakers series (the one where Kobe tied it at the end of regulation and won it at the end of OT on two shaky non-calls on Nash, both by Salvatore), not only did Salvatore officiate Sunday night's Game 5 (in which Miami had a 40-12 free-throw advantage at one point), but Salvatore called the foul on Wade's final drive in overtime (remember, the call where ABC couldn't find a replay to show that anyone touched him?) even though he was standing at midcourt a full 35-40 feet from the play, and even though two other refs were closer to the play. Not only was that NOT his call, he butchered it.

 

[peplaw06]

I knew I was right... I feel validated now.

Updated: June 20, 2006, 3:02 PM ET
NBA: No backcourt violation on inbounds to Wade


DALLAS -- The NBA said Tuesday that there was no backcourt violation on the play that led to Dwyane Wade's winning free throws in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

After the Miami Heat's 101-100 overtime victory over Dallas on Sunday night, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said an assistant coach showed him a tape that led his team to believe that Wade should have been called for a turnover when he caught an inbounds pass to begin the possession.

"My understanding from the rule book is, if you are going to catch the ball in the backcourt, you have to be in the backcourt to catch it," Cuban said.

Not true, according to Rule 4, Section VI, which deals with frontcourt/backcourt.

Replays showed that Wade leaped near midcourt to catch the ball in the air, landing with possession in the backcourt.

Part of the rule states that, "frontcourt/backcourt status is not attained until a player with the ball has established a positive position in either half during a throw-in in the last 2 minutes of the fourth period and/or any overtime period."

Because Wade was in the air when he caught the ball, league spokesman Tim Frank said his position wasn't determined until he landed. And since another rule allows for the ball to be thrown into the backcourt at that time, there was no violation.

"I knew I was straight," Wade said Tuesday morning after shootaround. "I know the rules. I knew it wasn't a backcourt."

Cuban was fined $250,000 by the league on Tuesday for his actions after the game.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2006/news/story?id=2492756
​

Nice find WG, but was his left foot on the floor in the frontcourt??


http://img136.*************/my.php?image=33nc.jpg

Hard to tell, but looks like it to me. He's already caught the ball when this pic was taken too. So he caught it earlier.

 

[Vintage]

Blah blah blah... Is that all you can say when showed yet another picture of irrefutable evidence that NBA refs are consistently the worst of any major sport??

Blah blah blah.

Its all I can say when my team chokes away another game....

Blame the officials for losing....its so damn conveniant. Plus, its easier on me...rather than having to confront the fact that Dallas CHOKED away 2 games.

Wade- Slaying Dallas since '06

 

[peplaw06]

Blah blah blah.

Its all I can say when my team chokes away another game....

Blame the officials for losing....its so damn conveniant. Plus, its easier on me...rather than having to confront the fact that Dallas CHOKED away 2 games.

Wade- Slaying Dallas since '06

11-32 from the field... 21-25 Free Throws.

I guess you've never blamed the officials for any of your teams losing... And game 5 was one of the biggest ref fiascos in history. It's like Jeffery Maier, the Tuck Rule, etc.

And how is it a "choke?" It was a close game through most of the game. Game 3 was a choke, I'll give you, but not Game 5.

 

[WoodysGirl]

Nice find WG, but was his left foot on the floor in the frontcourt??


http://img136.*************/my.php?image=33nc.jpg

Hard to tell, but looks like it to me. He's already caught the ball when this pic was taken too. So he caught it earlier.

He caught the ball in the front court, but he didn't land in the front court, even tho it's not clear in that pic. In that pic, it's hard to tell whether his foot tapped the frontcourt.

But in the gif that's posted, it doesn't look like he did. And I'm sure the NBA used better technology than that gif to determine whether his foot tapped.

 

[peplaw06]

He caught the ball in the front court, but he didn't land in the front court, even tho it's not clear in that pic. In that pic, it's hard to tell whether his foot tapped the frontcourt.

But in the gif that's posted, it doesn't look like he did. And I'm sure the NBA used better technology than that gif to determine whether his foot tapped.

I don't know, that foot is pointed toward the court. I have to say his toe is on the floor, or was at least when he caught it. Even if the NBA had better technology, would they come out and admit they were wrong if his foot had tapped?? In real time it's hard to tell, and it was a close call, but they wouldn't come out and say the refs blew it and cost the Mavs the game, even if it was indisputable evidence.

 

[Vintage]

11-32 from the field... 21-25 Free Throws.

I guess you've never blamed the officials for any of your teams losing... And game 5 was one of the biggest ref fiascos in history. It's like Jeffery Maier, the Tuck Rule, etc.

And how is it a "choke?" It was a close game through most of the game. Game 3 was a choke, I'll give you, but not Game 5.

Nope. I have never blamed the officials for a loss. I will from time to time say the officiating is poor....but never blame the officials for a loss game.

Wade has 121 points the last 3 games on 38/77 shooting.......GOOOOOOO MAVS DEFENSE!!!!

 

[Vintage]

Even if the NBA had better technology, would they come out and admit they were wrong if his foot had tapped?? In real time it's hard to tell, and it was a close call, but they wouldn't come out and say the refs blew it and cost the Mavs the game, even if it was indisputable evidence.

They just said it was the correct (non) call.


Mavs are down 2-3 in the series NOT because of the refs...but bec...they have no one to blame but themselves.

Despite what Cuban may "think."

 

[peplaw06]

Nope. I have never blamed the officials. I will from time to time say the officiating is poor....but never blame the officials for a game.

Wade has 121 points the last 3 games on 38/77 shooting.......GOOOOOOO MAVS DEFENSE!!!!

ummmmm... BS!!!!

 

[peplaw06]

They just said it was the correct (non) call.


Mavs are down 2-3 in the series NOT because of the refs...but bec...they have no one to blame but themselves.

Despite what Cuban may "think."

Of course they said it was a correct non call. They can't let anyone think their refs screwed it up in the NBA Finals. Could you imagine the fall out?? Remember the Super Bowl??