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I was watching a couple of talking heads on ESPN today and one of them had the interesting point that this is media driven. There's the crazy NBA conspiracy theory that's been put forth by people who've never called a game before claiming that the league favors the Lakers. Supposedly because the inadvertant whistle benefitted the Lakers, the league wanted to send a message that they do not favor the Lakers and did so by imposing a draconian penalty on an official and publicizing it. The error made by Henderson was not nearly as bad as Tom White's misapplication of the rules in an NFL game that got him and his crew fined. Bad calls are simply part of the game, and since the error was judgement, unless Henderson showed a propensity to make judgement errors throughout the season, he should not have been punished this harshly. This punishment sends the wrong message to the players and the fans that the league doesn't stand behind the officials and the NBA refs were absolutely right to protest.
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