Oh, and something completely Mizzou-unrelated...

...which is probably a good thing right about now...I really really want to like the NBA. Since we got HD last fall, I watched a lot more NBA games this year, and there are a lot of exciting teams right now--Dallas, Phoenix, Golden State, Houston, Denver, Chicago, Toronto...hopefully next year my boys in Portland will start doing well. However...

a) It's likely that NONE of those teams will make the NBA conference finals.

b) Phoenix got absolutely screwed by the stupid "you left the bench for two steps, and even though you didn't escalate anything, you must be suspended...it's not about fairness...and it's okay for some scrub of yours to start a fight just in case one (or two) of the other team's good players take two steps off the bench and get suspended. Oh, and it's okay to kick people in the achille's and in the junk" decision-making.

c) What's even worse is, you know that Dick Bavetta and Bennett Salvatore will be reffing Game 6 of the Spurs-Suns series, and the Suns will get every single call as the NBA's way of apologizing for the suspension mess...which is fine, except actually not suspending them would have worked a lot better. If you wonder why people don't like the NBA, it's not the "thugs" (um, hello...outfielder Delmon Young threw a bat at the ump last year in AAA...and the entire Cincinnati Bengals team got arrested at some point last year), it's the "fix". I'm still scarred and cynical from the officiating in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals (Lakers-Blazers) and Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals (Lakers-Kings), and I don't know any non-Laker fan who watched those games and doesn't feel the same way.

You watch the NFL or college sports (or the World Cup), and you leave with the impression that the refs are horribly inept. In the NBA (and maybe the World Cup...okay, definitely the World Cup), you leave with the impression the refs are horribly inept and a bit corrupt. Just saying.

I realize this was 0% Mizzou-, Big 12-, or NCAA-related...just figured I needed to distract myself after that depressing Mizzou Links...