Though I'm not really much af an NBA fan, I'm looking forward to the Shaq vs Koby on Christmas Day. Something I'd like to see tossed around;; say you're a ref scheduled for that game, and you know their history and now you've also heard Shaq's Corvette/Brick Wall comments. How do you prepare yourself and have a patient whistle to see what happens the first time Koby drives the lane?

I think would note in the pregame we have guys that are not particularly happy with each other. Than I would note who the stars on the team are and who might do what with the basketball or off ball. I do not know if what Shaq said would be that different than all the other things he might have already said.

I know if I was working the Pistons/Pacer game that same day, I would note there has been some bad blood over the last few years. But that would not change fundamentally what I call or not call. I would just try to be aware that any physical play might need to be addressed.

Peace

I'd look the other way
 

and hope that Shaq smacks him good and hard. Having been a Laker fan for many many years, it is so disheartening to see Kobe with so much talent throw it all away.

He had a role model on how to do it in MJ, but Kobe don't have the people skills to pull it off.

ESPN poll last week said it all when only 10-15 percent voted they would want to have Kobe on their team.

thanks
David

Do refs speak with captains before NBA games? If so, let them know that there will be no nonsense going on up in here tonight.

Ah yes ... Shaq and Kobe... two more of the many reasons not to like NBA ball as much as I used to.

Ahh! But the explosive start of my Suns (fan of since 1972) has made it hard for ignore the league like I have for some time--at least since they were last in the finals against MJ and the Bulls.

I became a fan of the Suns back when they had The Dannys.

I can almost guarantee that they agree that anything remotely "hard" will be a Flagrant 1 foul. I don't think they're going to let the good "hard foul" (as Hubie Brown dubbed it) be part of the game.

In last night's Celtics/Heat game, a Boston player was given a Flagrant 2 foul (ejection) on a block from behind where the player's follow through hit the shooter's head and knocked him to the floor. I can see the Flagrant 1 here (excessive contact), but I think the Flagrant 2 was a message.

I think you'll see the same mentality in the Laker/Heat game.

That was a tough call last night but I agreed with it. The defender must take into account the shooter's vulnerability in that situation.

I bet the sum of the officials' number will be less than 100.