I tire of the Zen Master

Seriously, that hat looks moronic. Especially since more than half of those titles were won with the Bulls.

Before every series the Lakers have had thus far in the playoffs, Phil Jackson has made some comment apparently designed to influence the referees in the coming series. He's come for Kevin Durant and Steve Nash, and now he's claiming that the whole Celtics team plays dirty or something.
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I think Jackson is a great coach, but this crap gets old really quickly. Considering how bad the referees are already, it could easily lead to bad calls in the finals. I know that this is what he's going for, but I don't really get why he can do it.

Let's take a look at Jackson's opposite number in the Finals, Doc Rivers. In March, he was fined $25 thousand after criticizing the referees in a game against the Bulls. Clearly his comments were made in an attempt to have an effect on the referees' future actions. So why was he fined when, as far as I can tell, Phil Jackson hasn't been fined for any of his ref-baiting?

I have a feeling it's mostly because he's Phil Jackson, but a big part of it also has to be the fact that he's technically not directly criticizing referees. But as I said earlier, Jackson is having an effect on referees - hell, he may be having more of an effect than Rivers' comments ever could. The NBA needs to make up their minds - either you can make comments directed at the referees, or you can't. Either fine everyone or nobody.

And while we're at it, let's fine all the referees too, just for being horrible at their jobs.

Perkins got jobbed (again)

So the other night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Kendrick Perkins was called for two technical fouls and thus was ejected from the game by rule. Typically this would perturb me, as I'm a Celtics fan, but at the time my brother was graduating from high school, so I was less interested than usual.

Then I saw film of the fouls, and I reached the appropriate level of rage.
More stuffThe first one was ridiculous. Perkins was trying to help a teammate up from the floor, and his hand slipped. Marcin Gortat was standing behind Perkins, and when his hand slipped, he (I assume accidentally) elbowed Gortat because, if you'll remember, he was standing right freaking behind Perkins. So Gortat decided it would be a good idea to punch the ball out of Perkins' hands, and the referee decided it would be a good idea to give Perkins a technical. If any part of that sequence makes sense to you, let me know.

The second one was maybe even more spectacular. Perkins committed a foul or something (I was watching this on replay, remember) and didn't like the call, so he said something as he was walking away. He didn't show anyone up, unlike some people

Sorry, I don't know where that came from. Anyway, he basically got a technical for walking away from the referee. That's pretty absurd.

The second one got rescinded yesterday, so Perkins is back to having six technical fouls. This is important because a player with seven technical fouls in a single playoffs receives a one-game suspension by rule. In essence, the NBA was able to fix a screw-up by Wednesday night's officials that could have totally changed this series.

The problem: that fix may only be temporary. Perkins now has no room for error whatsoever. One tech and he's out for a game. Considering the fact that the first technical was bogus as well, the NBA should have rescinded both. Stuff like this can turn a series, especially considering the fact that Glen Davis is hurt now and Rasheed Wallace is no longer able to play basketball well. Perkins is the top man on the "guarding Dwight Howard" depth chart. He shouldn't be in danger of missing a game because NBA officials are ridiculous.