Mr. Stern,
Tonight, June 20, 2006, was a sad day for the NBA. (http://www.nba.com)
Two great teams, the Dallas Mavericks (www.mavs.com) and the Miami Heat played their hearts out on the court to decide the 2006 champions of the NBA, and a winner did emerge, but heart was not what decided the outcome. No, bad officiating dictated who would hold the trophy over their heads. Although the motives are not clear, what is clear is the fact that referees in the NBA finals series made bad call after bad call. Unfortunately, those bad calls were for the most part tilted toward the Miami Heat, two in particular at the waning moments of games 5 and 6. Even-handed bad calls can be anticipated and covered for, but a seemingly overt effort to suppress the talent of one team proved insurmountable.
There is a good chance the Miami Heat would have won the series anyway, but the referees opened that door of doubt with their poor performance over the course of the series.
The NBA is turning into a joke and losing fans quickly.
Mr. Stern, your league should issue an apology for the poor officiating witnessed by millions over the past two weeks. Hundreds of players and millions of fans invest a lot of time and money into watching these games, and the very least the league can do is show an ounce of fairness.
I seriously doubt there will ever be any response to this by the NBA, but we can only hope this kind of poor management of the sport does not spill into the officiating of the NCAA as well.
