I don't think anyone who watched that 2002 Lakers-Kings series while it was happening will ever forget it. 27 free throws for one team in the fourth quarter of an elimination game is pretty damn tough to mark up to random chance. Game 6 felt like no matter what the team did they were going to lose because they were playing 8 on 5. And so in that sense yeah I'm always going to wonder when calls go the wrong way if there's more to it than just bad luck. There's already a perception that certain teams around the league are afforded privelaged status. I don't think we'll ever have a situation where a top prospect tells teams that they'll only workout for Sacramento and yet that happens for the Lakers basically every time they're in the lottery. You add to that how often certain teams and players show up in league promotional material and it's easy to feel like there's a dividing line between the teams the NBA actively wants to succeed and the teams that they just don't care all that much about. It's not necessarily about market size though, its about branding. LeBron is the player most people identify with the NBA right now. He makes the league look good and they want to ensure that he looks good. But I've watched this play out in all sorts of cities for related reasons. Westbrook got all sorts of superstar calls as he got closer to passing Oscar Robertson's triple double record. Golden State could do no wrong in their 73 win season with at least a dozen illegal screens going uncalled in every game I watched them play. Dunk champion Blake Griffin was noticeably exempt when the league starting cracking down on floppers with fines and suspensions a few years ago.
It's too simple to say that the calls will always favor big market teams. If you pay attention to the storylines the league is promoting in any given season though you can predict which teams and players will be granted preferential treatment. This isn't the same thing as saying the fix is in or excusing a losing team because the refs were "out to get them". Teams that are mentally tough can tune out the bias and win anyway. Nobody gave this Golden State team anything in the beginning, they went out there and took it. The superstar calls came later. That's the lesson we can learn there... Don't copy their roster or their offense but please do copy their swagger. Do copy their "why not us?" mantra.
Because the Sacramento Kings are always going to be an afterthought to the majority of the fans which means our team's importance to the NBA as a marketing tool is minimal. That's our reality - it's a part of our team identity really. The players who play here understand -- the fans this team does have are more passionate and committed to their team than just about any fanbase in the US. The people who are putting the team together should build on that by finding players who'll force the action, play through bad calls when they happen, and feed off the energy of the crowd. We're a second tier team with a chip on our shoulder and we wear our perceived small-town quantness with pride. To win when nobody else really wants us to or thinks we can is the straw that stirs the drink of Sacramento Kings basketball and year after year I keep waiting for a group of players and coaches to rally around that goal and make it happen. That's what I'm looking for every year... a unique type of player. A mix of blue collar work-ethic, irrational confidence, mental fortitude to dig twice as hard when it feels like the odds are against them, and of course the physical ability to impose their will on the game regardless of who they're suited up against. Basically I want a team full of tough Ron Artest SOBs who nobody wants to play against. Opposing teams need to know that whatever they're doing that's working against the 28 other teams in the league isn't going to work against Sacramento. If you get to that point the officiating doesn't matter anymore.
So more or less that's what I feel about the referee situation in the NBA. Complaining about it isn't going to change anything. You're never going to completely eliminate bias because so many of these calls are subjective and occur faster than the rational mind can process them. What is and is not a foul at game speed is in the realm of the subconscious, the rationalization and justification part comes later. It's as much a part of the game as the three point line and the shot clock. People who love games understand the fundamental nature of what a game is. The rules are often arbitrary but the fun comes from finding a way to win in the context of those arbitrary rules. So what if we start off the game with 100 dollars in our pocket and someone else starts with 1000? Once you understand that the setup is as much a part of the game as anything else, you realize that the goal is to win anyway or don't play at all and this game is still winnable.
