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I know nothing at all about the NBA, but something of interest...
We have a lot of problems in Scotland with referees getting attacked in the street by Rangers or Celtic fans, having their housed covered in graffitti, lives made living hell etc. Both teams feel that referees, in the big Old Firm matches, are biased against them.
How can this be? The other teams in the league never get any decisions against them when playing the big two. How do referees become biased against a club when they were previously biased for them.
Well, I reckon that good teams, by their nature, get a lot of calls their way. Partly that's skill at drawing them, partly its the benefit of the doubt they get, partly its because its less hassle for the official to award in favour of a big team, because they'll get less post-match criticism afterwards.
Well, what happens in the big games, and especially playoff scenarios, is that you get two good teams (both of whom all season long have got more of their fair share of calls, or else they wouldn't have been as good teams!) playing against each other. Thus, the advantages go away. This impact is quadrupled by the fact that things they got away in the regular season (as a big club) are now called as infringements because they are now playing against a team who gets an equal amount of calls. This is seen when Scottish football clubs play abroad - they feel that refs are biased against them because they never get any decisions, but its actually that they get away with murder normally.
Thus, might it be argued that both these teams are used to helpful officiating, and the reason why they are both so pissed is that now they are playing against another big team the officiating is fair but the disparity is so great it looks like bias? Any other examples you can think of?
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