2010 nba finals was a joke

I have been a fan of the NBA since I was 12 years old. I've been watching the NBA and actually understanding it since I was in my teens. That being said, I have never seen such a terribly officiated series, much less a finals, than the 2010 NBA finals. I'll be up front here and tell you that I am a celtics fan, so I'm slightly biased, but the calls that were made, or weren't made have completely ruined what could have been a great series.

Let's start with the many phantom fouls that were given out during the series. Do the referees actually see fouls, or just hand them out based on reactions from the crowd and star players. As I watched the series, I saw several star players from both teams sit on the bench in foul trouble because the refs were making terrible calls. It's not just me either, I've talked to several of my friends, Lakers and Celtics fans, and they agree with me on this. Kobe Bryant even had a game where he had to sit with five fouls, that's almost unheard of. The kicker here is that he got his fifth foul on a call made on Rajon Rondo, that was not a foul at all.

I understand that in order to make a snap judgement on a play in live action may be difficult, but this is what you are paid to do. Maybe they should be able to review more calls in the booth aside from the last 1:30 of the period, or if this problem persists, put another official on the floor, because something needs to be done. This was a terribly officiated series.

If you are thinking that my tone might be different had the Celtics won, you're right to some degree. I wouldn't be as upset as I am, but I would still acknowledge and sympathize with Lakers fans, because I know there were some tough calls. What it really comes down to though is that the Lakers played better down the stretch than the Celtics. Had the Celtics played better and made shots when they needed to perhaps they would be hoisting the trophy and having parades. I do however have a problem with the fact that the Celtics were in the penalty in the fourth quarter of game seven within the first few minutes of the quarter. In my opinion this is what actually buried them. For as bad as the Celtics were playing, the Lakers were not playing much better, they did however have tons of free shots to increase their lead.

The final thing I want to touch on is the amount of talk about Kobe Bryant being one of the greatest players alive. This to me is a complete load of crap. Kobe is good, but nowhere near as good as Jordan, Chamberlin, Russell, or even Pete Marovich. The bottom line is that Kobe Bryant is playin in a soft NBA compared to that of the 80's and 90's. To me, those were the prime years in Basketball. The amount of great players in the league then and now is laughable. At one time you had Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwan, Patrick Ewing, Isaiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, John Stockton. The list goes on and on. Today I think there are several good players, but nowhere near as good as it was in the older days. Based soley on centers alone, todays NBA is laughable. There really aren't any good centers, maybe Yao ming. Dwight Howard in my opinion is not good, he's just big. He does not have much skill so I will not include him. So when you look at it that way, I can't consider Kobe one of the greatest of all time. I know he has five rings, but I don't think a players career should be based on how many titles you've won.

Here's hoping the NBA fixes this problem and games can be played the right way. And also hoping the Celtics stick together and win one more.