Posted on 06/04/2002 7:37:53 AM PDT by mrustow
Article argues that NBA Commissioner David Stern wanted so much for the Los Angeles Lakers to extend their two-consecutive NBA championships to a "threepeat," that he fixed the Western Conference Finals against the Sacramento Kings.
What, I'm supposed to be a closet Kings fan, trying to pass for ... what?
You've sure made this your rally cry. What are you a doctor? I can tell you, I routinely eat up lying witnesses.
If you work the same way as a liar, er, lawyer, your typical closing will have you tell the jury: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you may safely disregard everything my opponent has said, because only a crook would disagree with me."
While were on the subject, it's you who are perpetuating lies, by posting such an assinine story and then trying to support it with half truths and innuendo.
What lies, half-truths, and innuendoes? Are ad hominem attacks all you are capable of?
You know how I roast witnesses when I'm questioning them? I confront them with documentation that is indisputable - just like I've provided you with indisputable facts that you are incapable of debating.
Claiming to have provided "indisputable facts" and actually having done so, are two very different things. You have indisputably engaged in bluster, filibuster, and ball-buster; but unless shouting down people counts, you have not argued a case.
Why do I continue to post? Because you're no better than the lying RATS, who continue to espouse myths that poison ignorant people's minds.
I want to know what state you practice in. If you could pass the bar exam -- assuming you did, which is a big stretch -- then I could walk in off the street, with no preparation, and ace it.
Also, the price of Bucs tickets went out of sight, and then I saw the "deal" made by the Glazers with the city of tampa, and that really did it.
I hope all of these guys die a pauper.
I cannot agree with the article, although I abhor the over marketing of the NBA by Stern and his administration. And I would not put it by him and his administration in affecting the outcome. My problem is the Kings had a great opportunity to win Game 7, but they withered in the fourth. Chris Webber seemed to be having flashbacks from the NCAA championship game. Doug Christie's inability to make a shot was pathetic. The Kings inability to make free throws in Game 7 was devastating. I think like the writer that the Nets may be overmatched, but I believe in magic, and if the Nets could find themselves in the fourth quarter of an elimination game of the Lakers, I am sure they will not collapse like Sacramento did.
Cause Twins stomp Cleveland 23-2!!!
I take professional basketball as seriously as I do a Palestinian promise.
I take professional basketball as seriously as I do a Palestinian promise.
LOL.
Is that what happenned? IMO, Phil Jackson is the most overrated coach in NBA history. He has never turned around a loser, and built it into a winner (see Byron Scott); rather, he has always had teams handed to him that already had the dominant player of their time, plus another superstar almost as good, and which were ready to win championships.
His wit is also overrated; I remember how then-Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy (who I think, BTW, is a much more resourceful coach), himself no Groucho Marx, drove Jackson crazy by calling him, "Big Chief Triangle."
5v8 did not decide Western Conference Championship, it just prolonged the series. Lakers are the champions. The Kings beat themselves and the Lakers showed up to watch the Kings choke in game seven.
What is scandal here is that game six made it so painfully obvious. It cheapens the NBA product. Standards need to be established, referees need to be "called out" in public by the league.
Until the league makes changes live with, deal with it, great teams can beat 5v8. Lakers did in game 1. Kings did in game 3.
Go Nets!
Unbelieveable, but the officials did determine or hinder the Nets only chance to win after a great comeback. Forget about it, Stern has made his choice.
This will be a quick series, since it will not have high ratings. Sorry to break the news.
But the Lakers think it will be an easy series. The lakers could have buried them by 30 points, but for some reason backed off.
The Nets need to play Kings style, attack Shaq on offensive and defense, make the boy sweat 20 pounds a quarter. Play a faster tempo, cut off passes to and coming from Shaq and Kobe. Byron Scott learned coaching from some of the best. Nets can beat the fix, but it won't be easy.
Realistically I think the Nets are one or two years away from being a legitimate challenge for the Western Champs. But this is the year of upsets. 5v8 is real, live with it, deal with it. Go Nets!
Watch Kidd, he has speed, he has postition... Oh that has to hurt! Kidd is a great flopper too.
"It was enjoyable," designated hitter Ortiz said. "It was crazy. Especially against a team that plays so good against us. We needed to show everyone we can do this."
A crowd of 14,029 was tuckered out by the end of the game from rising out of their seats so frequently to cheer.
The list of superlatives begins with catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who had four hits and was a homer away from the cycle when he batted twice in the seventh -- but managed only a single and a ground out.
"Yeah, when I was on deck, some people were yelling at me," Pierzynski said. "It was a tough situation. You can't go up there and try to hit a home run. And me, I can't hit home runs anyway."
The Twins' seventh, eighth and ninth hitters combined to hit a astonishing 12-for-18 with 12 runs scored. That included a 4-for-6 performance by Rivas, who also scored five runs and drove in five runs. It was his first game after missing 46 games because of a fractured bone near his left wrist. Dustan Mohr, Corey Koskie and Jacque Jones each hit homers.
"The linescore said it all," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Everything we swung at, we hit on the nose. Even the choppers fell in."
The Twins did their most damage in the seventh, in which they scored 10 runs, a club record for that inning. Koskie led off the inning with his fifth homer and nine consecutive batters reached base before Koskie struck out. Bobby Kielty, who replaced Torii Hunter in the seventh, doubled twice in the inning.
For Cleveland, it was humiliation revisited. It lost to Anaheim 21-2 on April 30.
"They beat the hell out of us," Cleveland manager Charlie Manuel said. "There wasn't much managing going on out there. All you could do is sit there and watch."
The Twins went out of the way to not sound disrespectful about the outcome. They remembered how they felt when they lost to Kansas City 16-3 on April 17 and figured Cleveland was feeling twice as worse.
"We weren't jumping around that much on the bench," said Jones, who hit his 11th homer. "We didn't want to show the other team up and I thought we did a good job of doing that."
Righthander Rick Reed (6-2), making his first start since leaving his outing May 29 because of a sore neck, went seven innings and gave up two runs on three hits.
His only mistakes were to Jim Thome, who crushed two homers to give him 17 for the season. Reed has given up only four earned runs in his past 13 2/3 innings against Cleveland -- all four runs coming on three homers by Thome.
Reed was almost forgotten Tuesday, because the Twins were more worried about an angry Cleveland coming to the park today.
"Unfortunately, it counts as one win," Gardenhire said, "and Cleveland is not going to be happy about it."
-- La Velle E. Neal III isat lneal@startribune.com .
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