Ref breaks down LeBron in the playoffs

In my opinion, the J.J. Barea call wasn’t a foul.  It just so happens that LeBron’s forearm is naturally at Barea’s face.  It should not be LeBron’s fault that Barea is 5’8" while LeBron is 6’9"

Secondly, why is this guy still doing this?  He knows how difficult it is to referee a game first hand but he’s still posting stupid videos just to show that he is clearly still hurting from what he did to himself and his career.

Yeah, I agree with you regarding the Terry foul.  If Terry was wide open and missed a dunk like that, he would have fallen anyway.

Is being a jackass. How was that play intentional whatsoever? You can not try to block a dunk? He explains in no way how it was intentional, other than the hard fall Jason Terry took after he used his off arm to try and push LeBron away. Honestly, that play was either a foul on Bron, or an offensive foul, nothing in between.

Than he has the audacity to accuse someone else of gambling on the side as compared to what he actually did when he was controlling the game? Jeff Van Gundy is a commentator. The players or refferrees have little to no idea, or care, what he is saying during the course of the game. He is not like a WWE ref who controls the action, he speaks his mind, and in both of these cases, he could say whatever he wants. I love how he only breaks down these two plays and leaves Dallas out of it completely.

I have no idea what credibility this guy has, these videos have been totally stupid and he sounds like a total hypocrite. If he had not been caught, he would still be missing calls as well, and we could leave out details as well. His commentary here was dreck.

Earth to Donaghy, LeBron has actually bee in foul trouble for much of the first two games.

 What does Tim Donaghy have against LeBron? Did LeBron rat him out? Does his sponsor/boss/pimp dislike LeBron?

If he were talking about Tyson Chandler or Brendan Haywood, no one would care. But, LeBron is not only a well known player, but one who people believe gets the benefit of the doubt on many calls. Any major NBA conspiracy theorist loves picking on whatever team is winning, or whomever they feel deserves to be winning. So, Donaghy is going down that route at "exposing" the horrors that is the officiating of LeBron James. The fact that he has yet too point out the flaws or mistakes of other players, particularly calls on the Mavericks, is just due to the fact that the Mavericks get absolutely no calls in their favor from the officials.

As you can see, I am being sarcastic. He is a bitter, malcontent who is obviously incredibly pissed off he got caught. But, rather than try to commentate on officiating in general, he is hoping to make everyone seem like as much of a lowlife as he was (or still is). So, he picks on the best player in basketball, who has the ball in his hands as often as any player out there and gets away with things tons of other players get away with in the NBA. He points out two plays that were not even controversial in the least, and leaves out all of the other things he "caught". Easier to do it as a commentator than in real time.

The most pathetic thing is that he is basically accusing people of betting on the game, something that only he was caught doing. But, to try and prove that he is not such a bad guy, what better way than to try and tell the world that EVERYONE is doing it. I am not alone, Jeff Van Gundy is doing it too! Please! If he argued about every missed call the officials made, when he than not be betting on the game? Should he say that LeBron was a thug for going for the ball and trying to block Jason Terry. The JJ Barea thing might have been slightly questionable, but it was by no means a malicious hit or a game changing missed call. I have no idea why anyone would listen to this clown shoes unless he was being objective, which he is clearly not and he is clearly just trying to drag everyone through the mud. But, still, LeBron James haters will love where he is coming from.

I don’t think that was a flagrant foul from Lebron on Terry, I do think that was an offensive foul on JJ Barea though.

Barea is one of the league leaders in drawing offensive fouls and he is not like Fisher who steps in when someone is driving, he usually draws them in 1on1 situations. He obviously gets more calls than he deserves, just because he is so small. I wouldn’t necesserly call him a flopper but he falls a lot, probably because he ways only like 140lbs and maybe because he does overact somethimes. I think it was an offensive foul from Lebron not because he pushed Barea in his face, but simply because he pushed him away with his arm to clear space. And I have to say he did get away with a few travels. They even showed one in a super slow motion, where he was in triple threat position and kept shuffling and lifting his foot and they showed that for 15sec or something and nobody said anything.

Accusing Van Gundy of betting money or whatever BS he was talking is complete nonsense. I mean analysing calls is okay, although everyone can act tough when he can watch something for 20 times in slow motion, from 4 different camera angles. Just ridiculous, I mean you could have atleast a little respect for this guy, but he loses everything in an instant talking nonsense like that.

Basketball is arguably the most difficult game to officiate.  There are so many fouls and illegal manuevers in the course of the game that they can’t possibly catch all of them, not to mention if they did then the game would last an eternity and be nothing more than a freethrow and inbounding exhibition. 

Give the refs a break. 

And Donaghy, you a hippocritic douche bag.

"Not only did he get away with that offensive foul, he got away with another offensive foul, two travels and a clear foul on Jason Terry shooting a three with 5:43 to go in the game."

Look… I don’t like Donaghy either and agree with every name he’s been called in this thread, BUT… He has some points. LeBron DID get away with an offensive foul against Chandler, two travels and you could clearly see him hit Jason Terry’s arm after the ball was released on that three in the corner. I’ve seen the refs make that call plenty of times.

And Donaghy didn’t say the LeBron foul on Terry should’ve been a flagrant foul. He said it was closer to a "borderline" flagrant foul than an offensive foul on Terry for swiping like Van Gundy was saying. And he has another legit point… Van Gundy comments on Terry for swiping, but says nothing about LeBron pushing off Barea with his elbow… Which was definitely an offensive foul in my opinion. Whether his elbow went into Barea’s neck or chest, it should’ve been an offensive foul for pushing off.

I can’t stand Donaghy and think it’s insane he has the nerve to criticize Van Gundy of gambling, but he does have a few points about some of the calls. I actually commented about these same calls in the game one thread.

A lot of hate for Tim Donaghy.  The guy is just trying to make a point about how the refs influence a game.  Don’t like how he singled out LeBron though, but I did like his game 1 brakedown on deadspin.com.  Check out Donaghy’s report he gave to federal investigators about how the refs manipulate games for the league if you don’t think he is legit.  Funny how that report went away from ESPN pretty quickly

I just thought it was funny that he said JJ’s last name as "Bareara"–throwing that extra "Ra" in there at the end…