Game 5 was gifted to Sacramento and some say game 6 was given back to the Lakers.
In game 7 the refs went against the Lakers most of the time and only the overtime was more equal with mostly non-calls.
Ir the refs did their job, Lakers would have won in 6 or 5, not 7.
This is just silly. Shaq travels almost every time he touches the ball - he has a little shuffle he does with his feet before he makes his spin. Ewing did the same thing in his heyday, but they didn't call it on Ewing, just like they don't call it on Shaq, because, not only are they superstars, but they play [or played] in two of the biggest television markets in the world.
As another poster mentioned above, Shaq also steps into the lane every time he releases a free throw. Of course, the NBA doesn't call lane violations on free throws anymore, so I guess maybe that doesn't count.
The worst of Shaq's violations, however, is the dropped shoulder. We all know that he routinely bowls over defenders on the way to the basket. Big white stiffs, like Greg Ostertag, and big black stiffs [God, I hope that doesn't trigger the porn censors], like Brendan Haywood, are forbidden to move their opponents in this manner. There was a call, I believe in the first half of game three last year, when Dikembe was standing at the baseline, just to the side of the basket, with his hands straight in the air, and his feet planted, and Shaq proceeded to elbow him in the torso, then lower his shoulder, then elbow him in the face [fouling Dikembe about three times in the process], and the foul was called, of course, on Dikembe. The series was over with that call - the Sixers had traded all their youthful quickness and speed to the Hawks to get the older, slower, but taller Mutombo, for the sole purpose of guarding Shaq in the finals. When it was clear that even Dikembe, the perennial winner of the NBA's best defensive player award, would not be allowed to guard Shaq, the whole series turned into Roller Derby. If I had been Larry Brown, I would have pulled my team off the floor, taken them back to the locker room, then returned by myself, grabbed the lead official by the hair on his head, dragged him over to the NBC courtside monitor, shown him the replay, and told him: You change that call, or we walk. The integrity of the game was on the line, and no one stood up to defend the game. As a result, you now have The World Wrestling Federation of Basketball. [Of course, no one stood up to challenge Bubba when he lied under oath to a federal judge and then sent his cabinet officers out to lie for him, but, then, that's why we live in a Banana Republic.]
Anyway, if you even try to argue this point, you're just making an ass of yourself.