Category Archives: Behind The Arc

Behind The Arc (03/14/2011): More Love For Kevin Love

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Kevin Love just had his double double streak broken at 53 consecutive games.

I don’t know why some people try to discredit that. And I don’t know why some people went to as far as saying, “Well, now he can concentrate on winning games!”

You mean he’s NOT trying to win a game?

Rebounding is all about effort. He is trying to get the ball for his team after a missed shot so they can get a possession. Which means he actually has to get his butt inside in order to secure the ball. Kevin Love is HUSTLING for the rock; what do you mean he’s NOT trying to win the game?

“Of course, he gets all those stats! He plays on a bad team!” Really! So explain to me why this is the second-longest streak in 40 years. There’s a reason for that, right? Maybe it’s difficult to do. And there are plenty of rebounds to go around. Love is just so good at positioning himself and predicting where the ball is going. He is THAT good at rebounding. It’s a special skill.

Take Dennis Rodman, for instance. No matter what team he played for, he got the board. Rodman, as cliche as it sounds, seemed to want the rebound more than anybody. He went against big guys like Shaquille O’Neal. He tapped the ball himself three or four times to get the ball. He dove on the floor constantly just to secure a possession. Even in his last year in the league (12 games with Dallas at the age of 38), he STILL averaged 14.3 rebounds. You can’t put down that heart, hustle, and passion.

Same goes for Kevin Love. You gotta respect what he does. Hey, sorry that his team only won a handful of games this year but last I checked, basketball is a team game. I’m sure everyone will appreciate Kevin Love more when his team does start winning.

PHOTO CREDIT: Marvin Levison/AP.

Rey-Rey is the founder of The No-Look Pass, in addition to being Editor of the ‘Stache. You can find him rambling away on Twitter: @TheNoLookPass.

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Behind The Arc (03/07/2011): Wanna Try Being A Ref?

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When are people going to stop blaming referees for their team’s losses?

Probably never. They’re an easy scapegoat. We believe our teams can do no wrong, even though some of these teams have over 40 losses at this time of the year, so we look for someone else to blame. It’s easy to point the finger at the referees.

Since I started doing the whole NBA blogging gig, I’ve learned a lot about the game by watching it even more closely, listening to other writers’ views, and the environment around it. Have you ever tried officiating a game? God. I don’t envy their position. These three referees have to stop play about 75 times per contest. Some of them are going to be wrong… and some of them have to face profanity-laced tirades from men about 12-18 inches taller and 30-150 pounds heavier than them. I know I would turn tail if Dwight Howard started cussing at me.

These refs do the best they can when it comes to officiating a game. Have you seen how fast the game can get? Try being a referee then; there are lots of “bang bang” calls that have to be made. Yes, they will make mistakes; they are human, after all. Yes, some of them make the worst calls ever. But 95 percent of the time, they don’t have the luxury of replay… AND there are no mulligans in this sport. Us fans always play referee at home or at the arena but, again, we get to see the play on different angles 7 or 8 times (and with the internet, we can see that play again as many times as we want to). The refs only get to make that call ONE time. If anything, I commend them for making the right call a lot of the time and having the balls to blow the whistle. Do you have the restraint to make a right call for the player that just cussed you out to death five minutes earlier? Of course, I still get mad at referees if they don’t let the players play or if they make the wrong call but I mean, I get mad at players, too, for not making the right play. What I’m saying is that I’m not going to blame the officials solely if a team loses a game. Have they blown a potential game-winning call? Of course, they have… but if that’s the case, let’s look at which calls they missed in the first quarter if we want to get extremely technical. People have seen my

Fans have to be smarter. Just because one team shot 45 freethrows and the other shot nine doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy brewing. Did they ever think that maybe that other team hacked their opponents as if fouling was going out of style? And do people really think that the refs have something to do with a blowout loss? (Yes, yes, I know. People will refer to Tim Donaghy but I believe he acted alone and he’ll be another story for another time.)

“Well, the referees took away (the team)’s confidence after the refs missed a call against (the other team)!”

If fans are going to blame THAT one instance then maybe that one team is not mentally tough enough to get through a game. Bad calls happen. Just like sh… happens. Get over it. The referees are not the ones missing a boxout. They’re not the ones missing lay-ups. They’re not the ones throwing the ball out of bounds. They’re not the ones missing critical foul shots. Maybe fans should point those out.

Am I saying that the NBA referees are the best? No. Far from it. But at some point, we gotta give them the benefit of the doubt. These NBA referees… hell, referees in pretty much all of sports… have a tough job. Let’s go easy on them a little bit.

I must be getting old.

PHOTO CREDIT: David Liam Kyle/NBAE/Getty Images.

Rey-Rey is the founder of The No-Look Pass, in addition to being Editor of the ‘Stache. You can find him rambling away on Twitter: @TheNoLookPass.

Behind The Arc (01/31/2011): Kevin Garnett’s Dirty Play

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Much of the controversy this week surrounded Kevin Garnett‘s dirty play against Channing Frye. Everyone was talking about the groin punch on whether or not he deserved a suspension. Obviously, he didn’t get suspended as he went on to help beat the rival Los Angeles Lakers yesterday.

Reggie Evans grabbed Chris Kaman‘s jewels in a playoff game in 2006. Kaman ended up pushing Evans after the play, which resulted in a technical. But as far as I knew, there was no further disciplinary action taken.

Since that pretty much set the precedent, I wasn’t surprised Kevin Garnett was NOT suspended (I wasn’t going to be surprised either way). Sure, it also fueled conspiracy theorists saying that they wanted to see Lakers and Celtics at their best since it’s a marquee match-up but you gotta remember that David Stern will NOT hesitate to suspend players before a huge game (see 2007 Playoffs between the San Antonio Spurs and the Phoenix Suns.).

We also gotta know that basketball is a physical game. Basketball players will not hesitate to distract a shooter by putting their hand on a player’s stomach or nudge a player while shooting. I get it. It’s normal. I play basketball, too. Now for KG, that seems a tad low… and while people are calling accident, it’s hard to give Garnett the benefit of the doubt. It seemed like there was some intent. This should push the league to do some rule where it’s an automatic suspension when a player tries to do… harm to another player’s… area. Doesn’t matter if it connects or not. I mean, punches that get thrown (connected or not) get suspended. Do the same thing for ball-assaulters.

Another issue that seems to be forgotten here? Kevin Garnett sliding his foot under Channing Frye’s landing spot. Now I got into a debate with someone about how this happens a lot because they’ll take any advantage they get.

ARE YOU EFFIN’ KIDDING ME?

Okay, I almost shattered my ankle playing ball when I landed on someone’s foot. BUT… this happened when I was going for a rebound and this WILL happen once in a while. NOT often but it happens. It sucks. Accidents happen in playing ball. Just like accidents happen when you’re walking down the street.

But for someone to do it on purpose? Hell, no. I felt like Garnett did it on purpose because it looked pretty calculated to me. But who in their right mind would do this on purpose? And if this happened a lot, we’d have ten sprained ankles in every basketball game. So, NO, it does NOT happen in every game (it’s really rare, if you ask me). And I also do think that something has to be done with this sort of thing, too. That takes weeks (months) off a player’s playing career (I’m no professional athlete but it took me months to heal from this and it SUCKED). People gotta watch it, man. At the end, it’s still basketball. Don’t hurt someone. And DON’T HURT SOMEONE, KEVIN GARNETT.

Lastly, some people accused Channing Frye of “flopping.” He was down because his ANKLE got hurt. And he stayed down because he was gauging the pain AND he probably couldn’t believe KG did that. So don’t give me that crap that Frye flopped.

Have a good week, ladies and fellas.

PHOTO CREDIT: Christian Petersen/Getty Images.

Rey-Rey is the Editor of Stacheketball and founder of the L.A.-based NBA Blog, The No-Look Pass. Babble with him on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.