| Frustration Gone Berserk Authored by Bob Souza - February 11, 2005 - 10:28 am
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Not the same as getting nailed with an insulting cup of liquid while relaxing on a table, mind you. But bad enough.
They knew there would be some repercussions – maybe they didn’t care, or maybe there wasn’t enough time to ponder the possibility - just react. Whatever the case, the Kings let it all blast out, and the piper came calling. With his greasy palm out, and his crooked oily smile.
Brad Miller suspended a game for tossing his sweatbands; Chris Webber fined ten thousand simoleons for drop-kicking the ball a mile; Mike Bibby fined 15 G-notes for not leaving right away; Cuttino Mobley fined 15 smackers for his post-game doo-doos about the officials. He correctly predicted an appearance by the piper. Didn’t slow him down.
Smarting from the glaring omission of a single participant in the all-star game, (with 3 extremely worthy candidates: Bibby, Miller, Webber), and having to contend with the high-octane Phoenix Suns, it’s no wonder the gang was a little on edge.
All it took was a blown call on the final play. And from one angle, it sure had the stink of a goal tend. Could have been tied up, overtime, more fun for our money. Maybe even a win. Instead, we get controversy, mayhem, ill-will. And a gut-wrenching loss. Oh yeah, and Miller absent for the showdown with the Sonics – one that resulted in yet another loss this year to the team from Washington. Great.
Perhaps it’s about respect. Nobody on a team with the fifth best record is good enough to be deemed an all-star, so that must have been a clean block, right?
Some officials (as well as MLB umpires) are either too embarrassed to have a call scrutinized, or believe they are too important to have made a mistake. Either way, their insecurity reigns. Pointing it out to the world is probably not the answer though.
The problem is that most of those striped-shirt people are actually human - with real feelings and stuff. And some have unbelievably long memories. If they don’t like you now, what’s going to change their mind later on? Questioning their ability and motivation is like questioning their manhood. Or womanhood.
Sometimes an unfortunate event like this can bring a team closer – bring more fire to the pit. There are things you can control – and quite obviously some you can’t. But positive spin with the officials can’t hurt. Time to let it go. The Kings know that.
They don’t want to get bitten again. Like maybe in the playoffs?
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