David Stern: Send Dick Bavetta to New Jersey, Stat!

By Craig Kwasniewski

David Stern's worst nightmare is about to happen and only Dick Bavetta can save the day.

There's a very real chance that Dwyane Wade and LeBron James could face off in the first round of the playoff unless "some NBA magic" happens Wednesday night. Right now both Chicago and Cleveland sit at 49-32 with the Bulls owning the tiebreaker. So if the playoffs started today, Chicago with the two seed faces Washington while Cleveland is matched up against Miami (with the freethrow over/under per game set at 150). This is not good news for the NBA offices in NYC.

Basketbawful put it best when he emailed me:

I'm telling you, David Stern is FREAKING OUT right now. I'm going to TiVo the Bulls game on Wednesday... I can almost guarantee that the Nets will be getting some serious home cooking that night, since, if the Bulls lose, the Cavs will be the 2-seed. Believe me, it's going to happen.

I agree, there's no way the NBA will allow Wade and LeBron to face up so early in the playoffs. This goes against Stern's master plan (The one he hatched during the Detroit-Cleveland series last year where he decided to bank the future of the NBA on the burgeoning Wade-LeBron rivalry. After Detroit's easy 2-0 lead, LeBron started living at the freethrow line, almost beating Detroit in game 7. And don't get me started on D-Wade... let's just say, this is the same time people became familiar with the phrase, "the Wade treatment.")

Anyway, don't be surprised if Dick Bavetta is reffing the Bulls-Nets game on Wednesday night.

Comments

[Brett]

Playing devil's advocate here. But since the first round in the East is going to be so boring, wouldn't Stern be OK with a Lebron/Wade first round battle to pique the playoff interest of the casual fan and get them hooked from the first round on?

[Byron]

LOL, what the sense to eliminate champions from Miami by sending Chicago on 'em?

[Mark]

I, as a fan, would love to see LBJ and D-Wade in the first round. The second round is always good... its the first round that needs a real rivalry. How about forgetting your weird conspiracy theories and focus on basketball? That would be great... :-/

[AJ]

Starting with game 3 in the Cleveland series and culminating in the shammockery that was the NBA Finals, I and fellow Pistons fans dealt with so much bullshit. I can almost guarentee LeBron and that punk bitch Wade will get the same treatment this year, and it fucking pisses me off. I realize that the officials weren't the only issue against the Heat as Sheed was injured and Billups played possibly his worst ball of the year, but the officiating was a joke and it was even worse in the Finals. I hate how no one in the media has the balls to breach this subject. Keep up the good work, this blog is the shit.

[Babes]

Sheed was injured - yeah right! Billups played his worst ball - yeah right! Officiating was a joke - yeah right again. Why don't you just suck it up and admit your 'Pissed-ons' were just too damned cocky and over-confident last year.

[Demetri]

In the three wins the Cavs had against the Pistons last year in the playoffs, Lebron took a combined 19 free throws. If you consider 19 free throws "living at the free throw line," then you apparantly haven't watched a Miami Heat game. The Cavs won those games fair and squar and Detroit got some really favorable officiating in game #2 of that series.

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