The important point in the recent Kobe Bryant suspension wasn't that he finally got caught smashing defenders in the face with his elbows, but rather that the league office - in overruling the officials who failed to make the call - finally acknowledged, in effect, that the game has gotten away from it's officials.

Of course Shaq - Kobe's former partner in crime - has gotten away with even worse murder on the court than Kobe, & to my knowledge has yet to ever be suspended. And before Shaq even there was the Mailman. And other stars & occasionally lesser players have benefitted from the game having utterly gotten away from the referees, in some cases to a degree that is beyond the scope of this write-up.

Whether officials are intimidated by star players (especially BIG ones) or just favor them is up for debate. In any case things have gotten sufficiently far out of hand that this post is not calling for debate on the subject, but rather calling for action on the problem.

The league at this point simply needs to re-evaluate ALL of it's officials after the current season ends. Probably 85% need to be removed or re-trained. This would be costly to the league, especially if most of the 85% were re-trained. My suggestion would be to re-train maybe 60%, give the 15% top refs a raise, remove the other 25%. Still, this would be costly to the league in the short run, but in the long run the league might well come out ahead because of the reduced salaries paid to the incoming refs (who would make considerably less than the retained officials, but considerably more than they made at the levels they previously officiated at).

Not to mention that the integrity of the game would be elevated to former levels once again, thereby encouraging the game's fan base. Enough already, the league is to be encouraged for taking a stand in the aforementioned overruling of it's officials, now they need to follow up & finish the job.

No sooner does Carmelo Anthony come back from a 15-day suspension than Kobe Bryant goes to work on his own suspension, once again pounding defenders in the face with his elbows. In a recently published photograph on Foxsports Kobe is shown in an extremely agitated state toward Phil Jackson while coming off the court. Son, if you're not going to listen to the man with 9 rings you have a long way to go as a basketball player. I don't care if he has Zero rings. And who could forget Darius Miles getting in the face of Portland coach Maurice Cheeks. Maurice Cheeks? The defense shredding / defense playing point man who led teams to NBA Championships? And Darius Who? is going to tell Cheeks what the game's about?

It's serious enough when you have a slew of NBA High School players & College dropouts who don't even have the words defense & fundamentals in their vocabulary, but with the fans, media & almighty dollar(s) sending the message to kids in the NBA that it's all about them these all-about-me players will rarely ever grasp that basketball is a team sport - on both ends of the floor. For every Josh Howard, Tim Duncan, Robert Horry, Mike Bibby & Eric Snow who know how to play the game you have 10 or 20 guys in today's NBA who don't know how to play basketball - & that much more so with the kids.

Yeah, I was too stupid to listen to my coach too while playing the game in High School. If you won't listen to your coach so you can learn how to play basketball right you don't have any business being in the NBA. I don't care if you have more skills than Micheal Ray Richardson. People are getting tired of wannabe primadonnas mucking up the NBA. And tired of the disgrace that high school kids / college dropouts in particular have brought on the NBA. Bring on the NBA age limit, & the older the better.

[And speaking of Zen, is it me, or does a  very possibly mythological figure named Buddha get most of the credit for Phil Jackson's success - while his mentor from his playing days, old school master/ N.Y. Knicks Championship coach Red Holzman gets virtually no credit].

Hall Of Famer & former Atlanta Falcons Coach Norm Van Brocklin: "Coach Van Brocklin, Joe Namath has guaranteed that his Jets will beat the Colts; what do you think about that? "We'll find out Sunday when he plays his first Professional game."

[Can someone explain to me how a team that has no clue on defense - with a coach who doesn't even have the word defense in his vocabulary - has a record of 34-8? The best record in the NBA].

If you listen to Charley Rosen & some other experts Maurice Cheeks has little ability to coach a basketball team - & the Philadelphia 76'ers are so far from being a basketball team that even Greg Popovich couldn't lead this team out of the cellar in the next 2 or 3 years - that is until last night when the '6ers won on the road in Double Overtime against the fully healthy Cleveland Cavaliers, thus leaving the Boston Celtics alone in last place (& that after Philly losing both of their star players in A. Iverson & C. Webber).

Once again Charley Rosen (not unlike many other experts) proves that he is a great X & O's man (like a coach, in other words) but has little ability to evaluate players or coaches (like an NBA scout or Front Office person, in other words). Although Rosen - & other X & O experts may be able to comment on which hand a player blows their nose with, when it comes to the question of whether or not a player - or coach - is really good or not forget it. It's called not being able to see the forest for the trees. [ Keep in mind that this is the same Charley Rosen who claims with a straight face that neither Elgin Baylor, Calvin Murphy or C-Webb played a lick of defense in their careers - in other words a guy who when he runs out of things to write about makes up some of the most ludicrous bologna anyone's ever churned out on the NBA ].

Granted, the Philadelphia 76'ers are not that much of a basketball team - all the more evidence that it is foolhardy for the experts to be berating Maurice Cheeks as a Coach in the NBA. Cheeks is an old school NBA veteran who is among the best point guards to ever play the game (anyone who would question this fact should move on to the next post). And as for his coaching ability - who has done any better in Portland since Cheeks left? When you work for people who have no business running NBA teams ( I won't mention names, but there are at least two of them high up in the Portland organization) many experts will fail to realize that teams start at the top, and what's at the top works down through the coaching staff & down to the players.

So what does Cheeks have left to work with in Philly? Andre Miller at the point, a fairly capable passer & scorer with marginal defense; A. Igoudala (22) at the 2 (or 3 - or young Willie Green at the 2 when AI moves to 3) who is still very young and shows it on both ends, but has improved with Miller at the point; no-defense / some offense Kyle Korver (25) or rookie mid-first round pick Rodney Carney at the 3; aged Joe Smith or inexperienced Steven Hunter (25) at the 4 (or Hunter at the 5); & young S. Dalembert (25) at the 5.

So there you have an 8-player rotation with an average age of 24 not counting Smith's age. And were any of these players - besides the aged Smith - ever rated as blue-chippers? So you have a problem with Maurice Cheeks as an NBA coach? We'll see. Now that Larry Brown is back in the organization - assuming he's honest in saying he isn't eyeing the coaching job - & now that the '6ers have three first-round draft picks coming up, we will see just what Cheeks can do with something resembling a real basketball team (Brown will make sure the '6ers resemble a real basketball team real soon, bank on it).

Ultra informs us on another blog that; "Wishing violence on people with ideological differences is a bit extreme, isn't it. Sounds like what Christians & Muslims would do, no."

The last estimate I heard was that 1,000,000 - 2,000,000 Christians have now been martyred around the world. Which continues today. And you want to talk about violence against people with ideological differences? And then blame the biggest victims?

As for Christians wishing violence on people, Jesus said; "Since my kingdom is not of this world, my people will not fight." And when Jesus changes your heart & saves your soul so that it is growing - rather than stagnating or dying - the last thing you do is wish violence on people who are not Christians. Jesus is about Love, not hate.

The Orthodox Church is not now, nor has it ever been involved in violence - except as victims. If you are somehow confusing the "Fundamentalist" republiclan /Evangelical/ Protestant /Denominational church (or "Christian Right") with Orthodox / historical Christianity, then at least remember that the Christian Right is generally not exceedingly more militant than the rightwing/Republican Party in general - and that liberal factions are now well-represented in many Protestant denominations and/or sects. And as for the worst violent "Christian" offender maybe start with the Vatican-led slaughters in the Inquisitions (1184--), Crusades & Reformation Period (c. 1520) wherein the executions involved killing scores of Christians from the Orthodox Church, "Anabaptist Christians", other ascetics, Muslims, etc. [ This very persecution, along with persecution from Muslims & others, being one of the driving forces that led to the international presence of the Orthodox Church - with the existence even of the Orthodox Church In America, complete with an Orthodox Church in most U.S. cities ].