NBA CHAMPIONSHIP: Who wins and in how many games

Congrats to Russell Westbrook. Allen Iverson is proud of you, son. SWAG SWAG. You got 43 in a playoff game!! Woo hoo.

I was wrong about LeBron. He's great.

The NBA, however, is awful.

[Dahoss]

Yeah, Lebron has proved me wrong as well. He's been terrific.

I'm not impressed with Brooks at all. To me, it seems he has absolutely no control of the team.

I don't care if there are 5 Michael Jordan clones on the court...you get the ball to your star player.

[RockHardTen1985]

No great shakes here, but like I said. Miami in 5.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

Congrats to Russell Westbrook. Allen Iverson is proud of you, son. SWAG SWAG. You got 43 in a playoff game!! Woo hoo.

I was wrong about LeBron. He's great.

The NBA, however, is awful.

I think it's obvious that you hate individual greatness in a player. You totally hated James because you said he wasn't a winner. If they win this thing, that won't make him a better player. He's still the same player. Now you are on Westbrook's case. What exactly was he supposed to do? Harden was giving them nothing and Durant was looking tentative for long stretches. Meanwhile, Westbrook was in that "zone" and couldn't be stopped. Was he supposed to stop shooting and give it to Harden more or maybe Fisher or Sefolosha? It's not as if he came in the interview room afterwards saying "yeah, I know we lost but hey, I got mine." He said that his 43 didn't matter because they lost. He played a tremendous game and I really don't see how he can be faulted for that. Then again, I remember when James scored 45 against the Celtics in Boston in game seven and lost and people blamed him.

Yeah you're right. I totally remember Scottie Pippen being the scorer for the bulls. WTF am I thinking?

The finals have been absolutely f.ucking awful. Go ahead and worship the guy and completely dismiss the fact that a missed layup by Tarden dashed any hopes of a tied series.

That was some youth league s.hit.

I actually feel sorry for OKC fans. They have a good team with a terrible coach who was terrible as a player and is getting exposed by SPOELSTRA who was exposed by the Dallas Mavericks coach.

The NBA is terrible. The only good thing about it was LeBron choking.

[cmorioles]

Westbrook was incredible last night. If it wasn't for him, the Thunder lose by 20. Durant simply isn't strong enough to get the ball a lot of the time.

I find it incredibly difficult to stomach the constant phantom fouls when Wade and James shoot. It really is sickening. Half the time,the refs can't even figure out who to call the foul on after the whistle, so they just make something up. On top of that, Westbrook was fouled a minimum of 10 times last night, 2 were called. Yeah, that makes sense.

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

Westbrook was incredible last night. If it wasn't for him, the Thunder lose by 20. Durant simply isn't strong enough to get the ball a lot of the time.

I find it incredibly difficult to stomach the constant phantom fouls when Wade and James shoot. It really is sickening. Half the time,the refs can't even figure out who to call the foul on after the whistle, so they just make something up. On top of that, Westbrook was fouled a minimum of 10 times last night, 2 were called. Yeah, that makes sense.

You do realize the NBA is practically scripted.

The two darling Stern darling teams made the finals, what a shock.

The more darling of the two is getting dramatically favored by the refs. Another shock.

[King Glorious]

It's always funny to read people talking about the games being set up. I guess the league never wanted to see James vs Bryant in the finals, especially when Shaq was in Cleveland. That wouldn't have made for good TV at all. I guess they don't want large market teams like NY or Chicago in there and would much rather have OKC, SA, and Orlando in there. I also love how they want James to win so much that eight years in, he's still never won. If anything, I'd bet that the league would rather he lose because he's a much bigger draw and more polarizing when people can make the "yeah but he's never won" argument. Were the Rose and Howard injuries both faked to make his path easier this year? Did he almost derail Stern’s plans last night with that whole fake cramp thing or was that part of the script? Talk all you want about fouls but that is not what is deciding this series. If OKC is getting anything from Harden, they are up 3-1 instead. Who scripted Battier in those first three games or Chalmers and Cole last night? Were the OKC players told to let them score? Has Harden been paid to miss? I would have loved to have been in the meeting where the league told Harden to play bad on purpose and he agreed. I'm still waiting for the first player to come out and say that the league approached him and asked him to do his best to lose. How much do you offer a guy making $10 million plus to give up their dream?

It's not incomprehensible to believe that outside sources could get to a player and force him to compromise his game or to a coach and make him compromise his team's chances with how he coaches. I wouldn't doubt some OKC fans are wondering if the mob got to Brooks and that's why Fisher was on the court so much. But the league doing it? No chance.

[Calzone Lord]

Of course it isn't rigged.

Maybe star players get preferential treatment from the refs in terms of calls -- but it's been that way at least since Jordan was playing.