Dwyane Wade and the NBA
I just stumbled across an interesting post detailing some of the calls that went for Dwyane Wade in Game 6. Its interesting to watch these a few days removed from the event. You can see them here.
Seeing them again and in aggregate frustrates me all over again. My frustration is not that these bad calls might have contributed to a Mavs series loss, but rather that the NBA really does have a problem. Wade is very talented and can score well on his own. As a scorer, teams are going to try to defend him closely. But its not fair to the defense if the guy is going to draw phantom calls. The NBA must restore some fairness in these types of situations.
To be fair, Dirk gets a lot of calls as well. I’m not a big fan of his clumsy drives to the lane or his flops. He’s talented enough to score well without any of those elements in his game. You can even argue the Mavs benefited significantly from a close call at the end of Game 7 in regulation against San Antonio. But when compared to some of Wade’s fouls it was definitely legitimate.
I feel like I haven’t made my point very well. I guess the bottom line for me is: let’s quit giving the superstars the calls. They’ll score well enough on their own. Let’s even up the playing field and see who legitimately wins games.