Best part of two all-star bigs...no foul calls!

[J-Roc]

Yes, JO did get called for a foul when he should have got the charge. But the real difference I noticed was when Brand and Dally were battling right under the hoop on offense, JO was able to get right on them, with his off hand and body clearing room. Basically, he's able to manhandle these guys under the rim, but he gets away with it because he's a star.

Don't underestimate this at all, especially early in games when refs don't want to call fouls on stars. I saw some of those replays and I was thinking, if Andrea was doing what JO is getting away with, Andrea would be sitting with 2 fouls after 2 minutes.

This opens up so much for us now. Hopefully Ray Chau moved in with JO to keep him stretched out at all times.

[Flagrant Foul]

Isn't that terrible though? Shouldn't officials just call a foul a foul no matter who it is? NBA referees are the worst out of all the professional sports.

[RaptorsNut]

I have to agree nba officiating is the most biased I've seen. I especially noticed this during the playoffs the last couple seasons, and I'm not just talk about raptor games. It seems that great players win basketball games, not the teams that play the best.

[Shaazzam]

Isn't that terrible though? Shouldn't officials just call a foul a foul no matter who it is? NBA referees are the worst out of all the professional sports.

There is the way it should be and the way it is.

I'm glad that we finally have away to benefit from the way it is.

[cheapfoul]

Sad but true. What is a foul on Andrea Bargnani is not a foul on Jermaine Oneal. It's the way it is in the NBA.

[LLJ]

JO still had 5 fouls.

Unfortunately last night so did Calderon.

[Bringbackoakley]

Watched the Orlando game after the Raps game; Dwight had 4 fouls in the late 3rd and put Joe Johnson to the floor really hard, almost looked like a flagrant. No call was made because the refs did not want to be responsible for taking him out of the game.

Like someone said before in this thread: There is the way it should be, then there is the way it is.

[Judas Priest]

It's the same in Baseball. Roger Clemens would get calls for strikes later in his career in his favour that a rookie wouldn't get. Same with other veteran stars past their prime.

It's not as bad in hockey. But it happens in the NHL too. Stars like Chris Pronger and Ovechkin don't get the same length of suspensions as others for the same crime.

So you could say it happens in all pro sports. Who are you paying to see? That's what it's about.

[LLJ]

It's not as bad in hockey. But it happens in the NHL too. Stars like Chris Pronger and Ovechkin don't get the same length of suspensions as others for the same crime.

.

Speaking of hockey calls, Leafs fans will tell you that a certain call in 1993 that favoured a certain player numbering 99 and not Dougie Gilmour ruined Toronto's chances of a Stanley Cup...

[youngLion]

Isn't that terrible though? Shouldn't officials just call a foul a foul no matter who it is? NBA referees are the worst out of all the professional sports.

There is the way it should be and the way it is.

I'm glad that we finally have away to benefit from the way it is.

Very well put.For a long time Bosh was routinely shafted on foul calls, I won't lose sleep if calls go the Raptors way this year.

[Chevy Chase]

I too did notice this during the game. But I think there was more to it than simply that JO is a star.

One one particular play, Moon's man had gotten a step on him and drove hard to the hoop. He then stopped short and pump faked. Moon ate it all up and was in the air when his man when to drive. Normally, he would have layed up into Moon and drawn the foul. But since there was lots of traffic in the paint and Both Bosh and JO Didn't go with the fake, they were able to put a body on the guy and force him to make a poor shot. I'm pretty sure that JO's hand slapped across the players arm during the play. It should have been a foul, but refs rarely give a guy the foul when he is surrounded by big men under the basket.

So I'm not sure if we got away with it because JO is a star or because refs look at a guy going up to the basket with three shotblokers on top of him and figure that its a bad shot and should be blocked.

[J-Roc]

JO still had 5 fouls.

Unfortunately last night so did Calderon.

I'd have to check the game stats, but to me it seemed most of JO's fouls were late in the game. That's key. That's how it is for D12 and the rest of the star bigs. Refs let them play tough D in the first half without having to worry about being pulled. The general rule is you get pulled once you have two fouls. Seems like we don't have to worry about that anymore this year...as long and JO and CB start. at most, CB will get one foul and JO will get one in the first half. What a way to put a stamp on the game in the first half and force the other team into jumpshots.

Oh, and meanwhile, with two bigs with offensive talent, we will ALWAYS set the tone of every game with our inside game. Boy, I'm still giddy over last night.

[I_Like_Dirt]

Star treatment definitely factors in there but how much I'm not sure. Part of the reason these guys actually are stars is that they can do a lot of things without fouling that other players simply can't. Both Bosh and O'Neal get called for a ticky tack foul every now and again but both of them are smart enough and good enough to stay away from those kinds of situations most of the time. They also get the benefit of the doubt every now and again but there are plenty of times where players like Araujo, Bargnani and Humphries get away with fouls, those times just tend to get overlooked because those players generally tend to be more foul prone.

I know people want to claim that rookies don't get the benefit of the doubt while stars do and that happens every now and again but for the most part these players are stars because they're good and can avoid the obvious fouls and the other players aren't as good because the obviously foul quite often even if it is just a minor infraction. Bosh and JO don't avoid fouls because of star treatment.

[chunkybwoy_53]

Raptorsnut....I thought there was really a bug on my screen.

[dirtybird]

If people think that's bad, I suggest they look at what KG gets away with. I remember a game last season where he committed at least 6 fouls in the last min of the game.

[O'DEAN_MAGNUM]

For those that criticize the refs for "star calls", I would suggest you save that wrath for the King rat.....David Stern, who personally hires and controls these refs

[JL5]

Haha, I guess I didn't notice since it was FOR us for once.