The Association

Are NBA Officials Worse than World Cup Referees?

By Craig Kwasniewski

Bouncing around the web I found a very interesting quote from Guardian Unlimited columnist Paul Kelso. For those unfamiliar with The Guardian, it is a English newspaper that leans toward the left. It's a good read if you want to keep up with European sports and REAL world news (ie. not Foxnews).

Anyway in his look back at the World Cup (First half good, second half not bad either) Kelso, known as "Digger" (whatever) wrote:

Biggest gripe Fifa's directions to referees. With the letter of the law being applied and the benefit of the doubt going to sides in possession, games occasionally resembled basketball, where any physical contact is automatically a foul.

WOW! We are now seeing the after-effect of the D-Wade debacle from the Finals. Even soccer columnists (sorry futbol) are noticing how bad the refereeing is in the NBA. And this is from a guy who covers a sport that invented and perfected flopping with stretchers and "magic spray."

David Stern are you listening? I don't want to see Wade, LeBron, Melo, Arenas all shooting 3,000 freethrows next season. Scoring 40 ppg. isn't all too entertaining if 26 of them are from the line. I hope that the Finals were just a product of shitty officiating and not a sign of things to come for 06-07.

Damn, Dick Bavetta just whistled me for fouling Wade.

Deutschland! Deutschland!

By Craig Kwasniewski

Quick update out here at the World Cup. First some NBA stuff.

You know how they have that annual montage showing ALL of the foreign announcers calling the NBA All-Star and Finals? (Usually we get 3 minutes of some Italian guy screaming "he dunka da balla") Well count out Ireland on that discussion. Three days, no NBA Finals talk at all. In fact I just saw one Grant Hill 1998 Detroit Pistons jersey with that ricockulous horse on the front, nothing else.

So I went back to mass consumption of Guinness. BTW - Y'all should make a trip to beer mecca, the Guinness Brewery. They end the tour with a pint and a view of all of Dublin from the top of the brewery.

So on to Germany. I tried to catch any news of The Finals: Game 1 and found nothing. Only the Guardian UK mentioned that Steve Nash is supporting England in the World Cup. That's all the NBA news I have here.

World Cup brief: All the talk since I arrived in Europe was, "Wayne Rooney - will he or won't he." Rooney is England's best chance at a World Cup title and he broke his foot a while back. Without him they lack that superstar talent needed to win the cup. Constant British news reports are breaking into daily television telling of his condition (even interrupting the Al-Zarqawi news). A HUGE relief to England, Rooney will play in the knockout phase.

I just arrived in Cologne, Germany just in time to catch the opening match on a big screen in the town center. Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2 and the streets are flooded with Germans celebrating like Miami did after they won the Eastern Conference Championship. Literally, the past 45 minutes I can hear cars honking non-stop out my hotel window among chants of, "Deutschland! Deutschland!"

Tomorrow is my first game, Sweden versus Trinidad & Tobago. My dilemma is trying to gawk at some smoking hot Swedish chicks without the wife catching me.

(Below is the viewing area in Cologne)