Make no mistake about it, the Boston Celtics have a decided advantage in this series against the Chicago Bulls, even without Kevin Garnett.  I am not that big into conspiracy theories as a general rule, but over the past two NBA Playoff seasons, I have witnessed the following:

- Kevin Garnett setting about 57,439 moving screens in last year’s Championship run for the Celtics.

- “Big Baby” Davis somehow getting the same treatment, which is probably even a more shameless favoring of the Celtics by the refs because Davis is a load and knows how to throw his weight around and has no problem doing so with impunity during this series against the Bulls.

- Derrick Rose getting very clearly fouled on 7 consecutive possessions in the 4th quarter of Game 5 with only 2 foul calls taking place.  I know that the guy is a rookie, and I know that the Celtics winning the series could mean more money for the league, but do they have to make it so obvious?  This fact probably has me even madder than the Rondo-Miller play (see below) because if the refs would have called those 7 Bulls possessions according to the rules, then the Bulls had about a 80% chance of winning the game in regulation…not to mention Vinny Del Negro would not have panicked and would have kept giving Rose the ball every possession instead of Ben Gordon, who was still special, but you could tell he was feeling the effects of the hamstring strain he suffered in Game 4.  Rose, on the other hand, was able to get to the rim against any 2 Celtics defenders seemingly any time he wanted.  Granted, if I were Vinny Del Negro, and they were hacking the stuffing out of my rookie point guard like that at the end of the game and not getting called for it, I might have started to explore other options as well.

- Ray Allen getting a foul called on him for lowering his shoulder and trying to bully his way through a screen, then acting like the Bulls player (Brad Miller) initiated the contact.  This play looked even worse because Miller was kind of throwing Allen around like a rag doll by the end of the play.  It was, without a question, a very easy call for the officials to make…just like the ticky-tacky foul Ray-Ray committed on Ben Gordon that he whined to the refs about for at least 5 minutes.  Dude, you get 6 fouls, and you used them all…sit down and let the guys with enough discipline to play within the rules continue the game.

- The refs “missing” a fragrant foul call by Rajon Rondo against Brad Miller at the end of the OT in Game 5.  I will admit that calling this a regular old foul was an understandable call, as it happened in real time…but there was ample opportunity for the refs to look at the play and get it right, as Miller was trying to literally stop the bleeding on the Bulls bench.  There was even a question as to whether or not there was goaltending on the play, so you know damn well that the refs watched the play at least a couple of times, saw that Rondo was very clearly headhunting, as Miller’s arm was completely outstretched with the ball in it when Rondo smacked him in the face.  Here’s what else you have to know, if you either live more than 50 miles outside of New England and/or have an IQ above 80 – the refs absolutely, without question, had to make a conscious decision that, despite what they saw on the replay, they were not going to call a flagrant foul on the most important play of the game, even though that flagrant foul was probably one of the easiest flagrant fouls to call in the entire time that the league has had a flagrant foul rule.  If the replay is not enough for you, how about just looking at the dude’s busted grill?  For whatever reason (as if we don’t already know), the refs decided to ignore the rule in this particular case.

So, is there anything that can be done about this, other than bitching and moaning?  Well, I am not sure you will ever be able to get rid of the fact that smaller players usually get carte blanche to beat up on guys, even other smaller players (see Bowen, Bruce for more info)…and the refs seem to look the other way even more when you have a little guy going up against a big guy.  But that does not mean that the league is powerless in this case.

The league is probably the only entity that can right this ship.  The refs awarded a game of this series to the Boston Celtics unfairly.  The league can award Game 6 to the Chicago Bulls.  I know that we are talking about the No Balls Association here, but they would be well within their rights to suspend Rajon Rondo for Game 6, right?  I mean, he did commit a violent act of whaling on a defenseless shooter’s face during a league-sanctioned contest, right?  What’s wrong with taking away Boston’s most important player for Game 6?  A tooth for a tooth (pardon the pun) is what I say.

I, for one, do not think that David Stern has the balls, but that is basically all that is required here – a little testicular fortitude on the part of the commissioner to right a very clear, and very easy to fix, wrong perpetrated against one of its proud franchises by the refs…assuming that the refs did not make their decision because they have been under orders to favor the Celtics, Lakers and Cavaliers at all costs since October.  I mean, all of the ref problems are fixed after the league hired that military dude, right?

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I am befuddled.  The Philadelphia Eagles, long the weakest link in The Champions Division, appear to have taken a page from the New York Giants, perhaps the best team in the NFL when it comes to dealing with troubled players.  Well, they are probably right up there with the Colts in that regard.  See – I really CAN say something positive about the Colts.

ASIDE:  The Colts have definitely had a very enviable policy of getting rid of players with extreme prejudice when they act like idiots off the field.  But, anyone that knows me MUST know that I cannot just say something nice about the Colts and leave it at that.  You know that I have to kind of turn it into some kind of a slam against the franchise or the fans or a key cog in the machine.  In this case, my job is unfortunately WAY too easy, because Marvin Harrison has done my work for me.  No one is talking about this at all, especially no one here in Indy, but the Colts have dealt with Marvin Harrison the same way they have dealt with ALL criminal defendants on their team…they terminated him with extreme prejudice.  Of course, since he has been such a face of the franchise, it all happened kind of quietly and all the local sports guys were kind of told nothing. 

As you would imagine, no one decided to take the approach I have taken and look at the fact that he may or may not have shot another human being…in fact, no one here in Indy has even had enough balls to ask the question.  Rather, everyone just started to point to Marvin’s decreased production since his knee injury and the emergence of other options on the Colts to catch the ball.  I mean, he is a future hall of famer that will go in as a Colt, so it had to be one of the tough football decisions that guys have to make from time to time…it certainly could not have been the fact that he was just the next in a long line of guys who had the special mix of being stupid enough to put himself in that kind of situation and being enough of a waste of oxygen that he would not know how to handle it.  So, there you have my relationship with the Colts in a nutshell…I respect and commend them for having the intestinal fortitude to deal with Harrison the way you should deal with criminals that want to play professional sports…but I have to give the Colts a failing grade for lacking the balls to come out and say what they were doing and why they were doing it and risk bruising a few fragile fan egos in the process.

OK…back to the pride of Philadelphia…if they can ever figure out how to play a team with Rex Grossman under center in the big game.  The Eagles very quietly did something pretty smart and cool last week.  Cornerback Sheldon Brown asked to be traded, and the Eagles told him publicly to piss up a rope and stop being so stupid.

You see, Brown has 4 years left on his current contract, and the Eagles told him that they would not renegotiate his contract until some time later, since he basically was already being paid enough money to make his family financially secure for the rest of their lives…oh, and HE HAS 4 YEARS LEFT ON HIS DEAL!!!!!  But, that was not enough for Brown, who feels like he should be getting more money.

Here is an excerpt from the Eagles’ official statement:  “There have been league MVP’s, Super Bowl champion quarterbacks and perennial Pro Bowlers who have been in a similar situation.  All of their teams have required them to wait until their contract expired or there was only one year remaining before any adjustment took place.  It is only in the most extraordinary, in fact, less than a handful of circumstances in the last ten years that any players two new years into a contract with three years left have been adjusted.  We don’t think this qualifies as an extraordinary circumstance…Sheldon’s comments under the circumstances actually serve to devalue him in a trade if we were willing to consider it; which we are not.”

Note to the Denver Broncos…if the Philadelphia Eagles’ front office is outshining yours in terms of dealing with prima donna athletes that have no concept of the employer-employee relationship, you are in big trouble.

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I have basically said what I thought I needed to say about this year’s tournament, but as I was going back over my notes, there are a few things that have not made it to the blog yet, so I thought I would throw one more article out there.  How’s that for a short intro…no B.S.  Here are the final thoughts:

1.  I Think Gus Johnson’s Act is Getting Tired Already.  For starters, I love Gus Johnson.  When he is doing a game, and it is getting more and more exciting with each passing moment, and he is getting more and more out of control with each passing moment…it probably does not get any better than that in the current sports landscape.  But Gus, can you please reserve that kind of behavior only for moments that deserve it?  When a team trailing by 19 goes on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 14 points with the other team’s 2 best players on the bench, we don’t need you acting like something exciting is happening, or even ABOUT to happen.  Seriously, doing that kind of thing is not only starting to cheapen what you bring to the table, it is starting to grate against people.

2.  Roy Williams is a Solid Division I Men’s Basketball Coach.  That’s it.  Sorry, but that’s all you get from me, Roy.  You had a team with a legitimate shot at being one of the truly special teams in NCAA history, and you coached them to losses against Boston College, Wake Forest and Maryland.  Granted, you had a little bad luck with Marcus Ginyard going down for the year and with Tyler Zeller being an absolute moron, but you absolutely do not get a free pass for losing to those 3 teams when they don’t even have one player that can start for your team.  You will notice that I have given you a free pass for losing to BC in the ACC Tournament, because Ty Lawson was a spectator and you had already pissed away any chance at real greatness your team had.  Don’t get me wrong, as a huge Tar Heels fan, I like that Roy has kept the magic going…I like the recruits he keeps getting (although an argument could be made that Dean Smith is about 95% responsible for every recruit that comes to Carolina)…and I like the assistant coaches he is able to attract.  But I have never, not one single time in his entire tenure in Chapel Hill, seen him elevate a team beyond its potential.  Not once was there a Tar Heel team that we thought had Sweet Sixteen potential and he took them to the Final Four.  Sure, it’s kind of difficult when you have Final Four potential just about every year, but can we please stop treating this guy like he is one of the top coaches ever?  He just took a team that could have easily been regarded as one of the best 3 or 4 teams in NCAA history and turned them into just another National Champion.

3.  I am Starting to Turn the Corner on Tom Izzo.  Michigan State exceeded their ceiling under the guidance of Tom Izzo.  The mere fact that this happened during the 2008-2009 season puts Tom Izzo on a better “historically great” footing than Roy Williams.  I think Izzo might just be the real deal.  Anyone who has been following the blog knows that in order for me to think a coach is the real deal, he has to elevate his team on a regular basis…not merely meet expectations but exceed them.  And that is EXACTLY what Michigan State did this year.  I am not ready to put Izzo up there with the all-timers yet, but I am suitably impressed with his coaching this year.  To add to his legacy even more, some of his former assistants are starting to make some noise.  Look at what Tom Crean has done and continues to do.  Everyone knew it was going to be a down year for Indiana, but no one knew how bad until the roster started to take shape…a member of the Indiana baseball team, an equipment manager, and a couple of guys that I think I recognized from my local pickup game Sunday mornings at the Indy JCC were all getting minutes as the season progressed.  That team went 1-17 in conference and was competitive in a lot of those games, and they never quit or gave up on one single game along the way.  Crean is a good one…and if he continues to coach his players to exceed their capabilities year after year, he will one day be mentioned with the all-time greats, like I think his mentor Tom Izzo might be as well, based on his performance and the performance of his team this year.

That’s it.  Just a few thoughts that were swimming around my head at one point during the last few weeks of the college basketball season, at least enough so that I thought enough to write them down.

There you have it.  My NCAA notepad for the 2008-2009 season is officially empty.  Well, I think I feel a blog post coming on that is kind of a cautionary tale to Kentucky about their recent hire.  They can ill afford any kind of violation or investigation, and the NCAA is going to send a message very soon that they are going to come down hard on people that bend the rules.

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We Have Seen This Kind of Thing Before. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is beginning to look an awful lot like the NFL in the early 1990s.  Back then, you just knew that one of a handful of teams was going to taking home the hardware every year:  San Francisco, Any Team in the NFC East Not Named Philly or Phoenix (read HERE for more info), Green Bay, Buffalo, Houston or Pittsburgh.  They were the teams that had the best chance to win because they spent the most money.  Well, it’s kind of like that in college hoops right now…in fact, it has been that way for a good long time.  In fact, let’s look at the most valuable college basketball programs, according to Forbes Magazine.

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First of all, thanks to John Calipari pulling a Brett Favre for a couple of days, I had to delay this blog post.  As any of you regular readers know, I am a huge fan of the “Random Thoughts” format, as that ensures that I only need to come up with a paragraph or two for each subject, instead of a whole post.  Truth be told, there are at least a couple of things that should warrant their own post, and when appropriate, I have so designated within this post.

Without further ado, here are the random thoughts:

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