Hater, yes. But not for the reason you think

A friend of mine on Facebook said: "You don't care about the game so why comment?"

He was speaking of the Lakers winning the "world" championship last night of course. The only reason I watched the NBA finals this year was because my wife was interested in the games so it was on the TV in the living room. Eventually I would get aggravated with the non calls and head out to the office. It's not that I'm going to hate on any man for what he does for a living and I don't begrudge any professional athlete any money they make, but the NBA isn't what I consider basketball, fully realizing I'm in the minority, I comment.

If you look at American Sports, the core rules of the games are pretty much the same; baseball- same core rules from Little League to the MLB, football- same core rules from Pop Warner to the NFL, so on and so forth. But for some reason, professional men's basketball is exempt from some of the games core rules, most surround "traveling," and contact, which have to be in the NBA rule book somewhere. Several years ago it seemed that the NBA referees stopped making calls, or in one instance last night where Pau Gasol was clearly fouled before he put his shot up, yet was give two free throws, they made bad calls that helped a team. This to me at least, affected the out come of games so I quit watching. This was well before the Tim Donaghy situation came to light, but only cemented my position of favoritism towards certain players and the best team not winning because of the officiating. So sport becomes entertainment and in that instance the NBA is only one slight step above professional wresting in my opinion because the plays aren't in on it. Well the marquee players are, but the guy busting his ass for league minimum isn't. However, the NBA has a large fan base who gladly shell out money to watch, so why should they care, Right?

Ask horse racing. While the expansion of casino gaming hasn't helped, racing's PR nightmare began long before that. Over the last two decades or so it came to light that fixes were in, trainers were doping horses, the rules became cloudy and cheaters were allowed to continue to participate. While the majority of racing's fan base wagered on the races, because of the perception of malfeasance, horse racing lost people who would pay at the gate and make casual wagers on major racing days, or who would take a day off just to go to the races. I will concede that isn't the only problem racing has, the sport still suffers it's black eye because of the perception of an unlevel pitch.

Back to the NBA; the leagues worst nightmare is that small market teams would make the finals and their television ratings and revenue would suffer. Imagine if you would, that Oklahoma City bounced the Lakers in the first round. Not that I'm saying that officiating caused the Lakers to win that series, talent will overcome if it has the proper motivation. But you have to admit the domino effect of them being out of the playoffs would have cost the NBA a considerable amount of money, and after watching the officiating in the finals and the departure from the core rules of the game it makes one wonder.

Part of what is supposed to make sporting events fun in the integrity of the rules, you rarely get that anywhere else in the world. That's why I care and why I comment.