can't stand listening to Opera!! Oprah, on the other hand...

Gee,who sh*t in your Wheaties this morning? :D

BTW,it's opera. http://213.239.157.21/smilies/opera.gif [/B][/QUOTE]

Well, if I wanted to start trouble I would just say I'm sick & tired of these little people from pathetic countries putting their hands on their hips, noses in the air & saying how arrogant we are and then coming back a week later when they're in sh1t up to their eyeballs begging us to get THEIR nasty pathetic asses out of trouble yet again. F*** them & f*** that.

But of course I would never say that.

BTW, it's Oprah

http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ee9rwjj/b3ta/oprah.jpg

BTW, it's Oprah

[/B][/QUOTE]If it'll make you feel better,go kick Woody.

Not me,you idiot,the dog!

BTW,it's still opera.Even though I personally am the greatest fan of Death Tongue. And have been all of my adolescent life!

DEATH TONGUE RULZ!!!
http://www.angelfire.com/ak/captaino...athtoungue.jpg

Nah, Woody's one of the good guys.

Not you, you idiot, the dog!

:p

Both statements greatly uncalled for. Must we Canadians always act the part of peacekeeper?

Isaak, the theme of your posts are valid, but there is a big difference between challenging the imperalism and ultra-right wing agenda of the Bush Administration, and just plain America-bashing. If you are from Israel, I think you and Romano should remember that if it wasn't for the US, you would all be saying "Yes, Master" to Yassar Arafat. America has much improving to do on the world stage, but they are still fundamentally good people. After all, they don't fly jet liners into buildings on purpose.

Dan, your attitude is exactly what is at the root of America-bashing in the first place. You have a valid point about the US being an economic, political, and military saviour to many countries. Believe me, as Canadian, I am grateful to have you folks as neighbours. But what you have to also realize is that it's easy to give when you got the most.

While there is no justification for 9-11 and the extremist Islamic movement, the US has itself to blame for much of its tarnished reputation. America has consistently picked and chosen its battles, and limited its benevolance to only those situations from which it can profit.

If Iraq's main export were bananas instead of oil, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today.

Although this week has revealed major US commitments to Africa, its reluctance, even outright refusal to address the plight of that continent over the last 20 years is the biggest crime of all. Dozens of regimes, all of them much worse than Iraq, have thrived there for decades, with little or no leadership shown by the US to bring them down.

The poorest, sickest person on America's streets still lives like a king compared to someone in Ethiopia, Congo, or Rwanda. Don't forget that.

With wealth and power comes responsibility. There is a balance to be struck between individual liberty, free market, and the sharing of resources to benefit the entire planet. America seems to thumb its nose at this. That is the problem.

BTW, I am not some bleeding-heart liberal. Where I come from, people are so conservative they make you look like Ralph Nader.

Just one man's opinion.

And incidentally, I've reffed both FIBA and NCAA, and NCAA is way better.

[Edited by canuckrefguy on Jul 11th, 2003 at 01:21 AM]

The above post by Canuckrefguy is probably the most sensible thing said by anyone in this rapidly deteriorating thread. Thanks for bringing some sense to this. Having said that though, I would also add that on a political scale there is little we can do, in the immediate sense at least, when our elected leaders get on their high horses.

There's also no point and IMHO definately no place for politics in sport. Isn't the idea of sport to achieve the utmost in human performance? Regardless of the rules we play by, aren't we all looking to be involved in the perfect game? As a referee in Australia I can only dream of:
a) Refereeing the perfect game (in which case I will promptly retire)
b) Referee in the NBA/College where I can be a part of athletes trying to achieve THEIR perfect game.

Now that I have gotten all idealistic can we return to a more interesting topic. i.e., Davism - bring them on. Even though there are times we cannot use them at least we can think them. Wouldn't that fustrate coaches - wondering why we are smiling to ourselves.

Cheers,

G'day eaco
 

Eaco, I'm not even going to bother agreeing with you and Canuckrefguy, I've had this conversation with members here until my face was blue and my fingers red (no that isn't supposed to be a pun about the american flag - but it is kinda funny).

Nice to see there is one other Aussie here - someone's gotta educate these northern hemispeherians (dunno if its a word - but it is now) and explain that the world is actually upside down, and Oz is on top!!

Many people have been discussing recently the number of non-american players entering the NBA. Here is a bit of trivia for you. One of Australian basketball cult personalities (and a good friend of mine) has just been cast as a wookie in Star Wars III. Type in "Kingma wookie" in google for a bit of a giggle.

I'll leave you to go back to the political rants....check ya in another 6 months.

Peace!

Hot diggity, no I am not from Israel, but yes from Australia, the best place in the entire planet :)

Well, it looks like I succesfully stired the pot, in the hope that at least one of you may look outside that USA of yours and realise that, yes, there is a whole other world out there.

Long live world basketball and its global rules that makes the playing field even for everyone :)

- Isaak

Just Curious
 

I'm curious - why wouldn't playing under NCAA rules make the playing field even for everyone?

Even moreso, how does a set of rules "make the playing field even for everyone?"

I think the trapezoid and 6.25m three will be the way to go by 2004-05 for all federations. The trapezoid also promotes more passing, shooting, and cutting.

The NBA's 8-second rule is a FIBA rule as was the influence to eliminate the no-zone rule. FIBA will influence the NBA in rule changes in the future.

The arrow has to go, however. The NBA has refused to go by luck.

[Edited by Bobby on Jul 15th, 2003 at 10:34 PM]

If you love FEEBLE so much, why don't you marry it? http://www.deephousepage.com/smilies/1luvu.gif

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bobby
The trapezoid also promotes more passing, shooting, and cutting.

I've reffed both FIBA and NCAA, and disagree with you completely. One of the roughest, post-dominated games I ever saw was a FIBA game. I also think any NCAA coach who runs a motion offence would have an issue with this statement.

Going to the trapezoid will only mean the big guys will beat the s**t out of each other a foot or so further away from the hoop. Ask the NBA if the wide key cuts down on rough play.

There's little or no truth to either of these statements. The fact that FIBA had an 8 second count before the NBA doesn't mean that the NBA changed their rule because FIBA used it. They actually chan ge several timing rules at the same time, including shot clock resets. As for zone defenses, they've been legal in under NFHS and NCAA rules for years. So, why is it that it was FIBA that influenced the change? Answer: They didn't. If you want to credit someone with this, credit Don Nelson.

The trapezoid won't happen anytime soon in NFHS, simply because of the labor and cost involved in painting thousands of gyms floors across America.

We're all just mercenaries anyway
 

This battle over whether FIBA or NF or NCAA is really kind of pointless, isn't it?

We all gotta work for somebody. We may say we're calling by a certain set of rules, but the truth is that we're calling by a set of rules as interpreted and ammended by an assignor or league or by local custom and practice.

Disagree? Count how many times we make comments on this board about "technically the rule says such and such, but I'd never actually call it that way during a game." Or how often we respond to questions with, "we call it such and such way around here, but you'd better check with your assignor."

While it is endlessly entertaining to debate the finer points of the rules, would any of us actually pack in officiating if, for instance, high school decided to adopt FIBA rules? Would the FIBA guys quit if FIBA decided to adopt NCAA rules? No, I don't think any of us would. We love doing this enough that we'd do it even if we were told to use the "other guy's" rules.

We're all just mercenaries :)