The Refs and the ESPN Announcers

[connerhenry43]

I watched last night's game at home, watched mike and tommy. tommy was all over the refs of course, but even gorman, who is usually pretty quiet with the refs, showed his frustration with the one sided officiating all night long.

my question is this, to anyone who watched on ESPN (i believe hubie and that stooge tirico did the game, could be wrong). were the ESPN guys saying anything about the refs, or at the very least the one sided free throw numbers? it was so obvious to me, but hubie does not like to ref-bash, and if it is not in his pre-game script, tirico cannot say anything of any relevance.

[CelticsWhat35]

I watched last night's game at home, watched mike and tommy. tommy was all over the refs of course, but even gorman, who is usually pretty quiet with the refs, showed his frustration with the one sided officiating all night long.

my question is this, to anyone who watched on ESPN (i believe hubie and that stooge tirico did the game, could be wrong). were the ESPN guys saying anything about the refs, or at the very least the one sided free throw numbers? it was so obvious to me, but hubie does not like to ref-bash, and if it is not in his pre-game script, tirico cannot say anything of any relevance.

I actually didn't realize that the game was on CSN, otherwise I definitely would've watched it on there.  But I watched it on ESPN, and I don't recall them ever mentioning the free throw disparity, which is why I was so surprised when I saw someone else bring it up.  They also never mentioned any bias towards the Cavs.  They also were in agreement that Baby's foul deserved a flargrant 2, which I thought was ridiculous.  That's a flagrant 1 and move on.  You don't eject a player for THAT.

All and all, the announcers weren't horrible, as they were giving praise to both teams, but they definitely didn't make mention of any referee bias.

[Amonkey]

I don't call the disparity either.  Whenever there was a bad call, they were talking about what Lebron ate for breakfast or what time he defecated today.

When BBD got kicked out, they were saying it was CLEARLY well justified even though it was clear that the intent was to go to the ball.

What I hate about national televised games is that they're always talking everything EXCEPT the game.  With Tommy and even the new guy, at least they are analyzing the plays that occurs, from the first quarter to the second.  I really don't need to know how much in love they are with Shaq or how much they would love to spend an afternoon gazing at the stars with Dwayne Wade.

[connerhenry43]

was it nitwit tirico and hubie brown?

i said to my wife last night, i was staying as far away from espn as possible. there would be some horrendous call against the C's and tirico would be talking about how a library just got dedicated in joe smith's middle school.

[Steve Weinman]

was it nitwit tirico and hubie brown?

i said to my wife last night, i was staying as far away from espn as possible. there would be some horrendous call against the C's and tirico would be talking about how a library just got dedicated in joe smith's middle school.

Yep, yep it was.  Certainly the sort of night when I would have loved to be in the local area in order to have the option for the CSN broadcast.  I'd have to imagine Tommy was on his 'A' game.

Thought some of Hubie's actual hoops analysis was good.  Beyond that, thanks for making me laugh with the Tirico comment above.  TP, CH.

-sw

[Cman]

I watched last night's game at home, watched mike and tommy. tommy was all over the refs of course, but even gorman, who is usually pretty quiet with the refs, showed his frustration with the one sided officiating all night long.

my question is this, to anyone who watched on ESPN (i believe hubie and that stooge tirico did the game, could be wrong). were the ESPN guys saying anything about the refs, or at the very least the one sided free throw numbers? it was so obvious to me, but hubie does not like to ref-bash, and if it is not in his pre-game script, tirico cannot say anything of any relevance.

I actually didn't realize that the game was on CSN, otherwise I definitely would've watched it on there.  But I watched it on ESPN, and I don't recall them ever mentioning the free throw disparity, which is why I was so surprised when I saw someone else bring it up.  They also never mentioned any bias towards the Cavs.  They also were in agreement that Baby's foul deserved a flargrant 2, which I thought was ridiculous.  That's a flagrant 1 and move on.  You don't eject a player for THAT.

All and all, the announcers weren't horrible, as they were giving praise to both teams, but they definitely didn't make mention of any referee bias.

They did mention the FT disparity in the 2nd half. 
They also mentioned they were surprised by it given how many points in the paint the Cs had (so one would imagine there would be lots of +1s called -- they didn't say this, but I think that was the implication).

All in all, the announcers weren't bad, given what I was expecting.  I will temper my comment in the last sentence by adding that I didn't watch the whole game, so could have missed some egregious stuff they said (we had some dinner guests, so I snuck in bits and pieces of the 1st half when I could, but did see lots of the 2nd half).

[guava_wrench]

Clearly everyone but the Celtics fans don't know what they are talking about. 

[andrewf]

at least reggie miller wasnt doing the game. sometimes he forces me to mute it

[housecall]

was it nitwit tirico and hubie brown?

i said to my wife last night, i was staying as far away from espn as possible. there would be some horrendous call against the C's and tirico would be talking about how a library just got dedicated in joe smith's middle school.

Yep, yep it was.  Certainly the sort of night when I would have loved to be in the local area in order to have the option for the CSN broadcast.  I'd have to imagine Tommy was on his 'A' game.

Thought some of Hubie's actual hoops analysis was good.  Beyond that, thanks for making me laugh with the Tirico comment above.  TP, CH.

-sw

Funny thing about Tommy yesterday was,around 3pm he was a radio quest on the local weei station... when asked his opinion of the refs.officiating this season,he was semi-complimentary,said they were doing a better job overall this season than yrs.past.The host(Big O)was as shocked as i was to here Tommy give the refs.some credit.I bet Tommy wishes he could take those words back  after last night's game.

[KCattheStripe]

I actually thought Hubie and Tirico were on their game last night.

[tb727]

Tirico must be related to LeBron James.  No way someone talks that much of how great a player is when he's getting outplayed by Pierce.

[tb727]

was it nitwit tirico and hubie brown?

i said to my wife last night, i was staying as far away from espn as possible. there would be some horrendous call against the C's and tirico would be talking about how a library just got dedicated in joe smith's middle school.

Hilarious!