Right off the bat: Rajon Rondo's foul on Brad Miller in the waning seconds of overtime in Game 5 -- Rondo planted a swinging open hand on Miller's dome as Miller drove into the paint -- was not deemed flagrant after further review by the NBA, an unquestionable league conspiracy to increase Boston's chances of advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals and thus remaining in contention for back-to-back titles.
Watch the play for yourself:
According to NBA Rule 12, Section IV-E, a flagrant foul is any foul "interpreted to be unnecessary." Smacking a player across the head and causing him to bleed in order to prevent an easy layup isn't unnecessary? Nope...not if you take a walk in the shoes of NBA management.
The Celtics are arguably the most storied franchise in NBA history. They've won 17 NBA championships -- the most by any team -- and boast the longest consecutive championship winning streak of any North American professional sports team to date (eight straight, 1957-1969). Heck, you could easily assemble an all-time great NBA team with just Celtics players.
Following last year's successful championship run, Boston remained the league's top team for the first third of this season. Not only did a repeat appear inevitable in the wake of their seemingly endless 19-game winning streak, but the Celtics were beginning to look like a legitimate team (as opposed to last season's Pierce-Garnett-Allen combination of longtime all-stars, each desperate for their first ring). With the Celtics and Lakers heading their respective conferences, Commissioner David Stern and Co. must have been licking their chops as the two teams seemed to be on a head-on NBA Finals collision course for the second consecutive year -- and the twelfth time in league history.
But then the Lakers snapped Boston's 19-gamer on Christmas Day and, from there on out, the Celtics hit the infamous wall and finished the rest of the season with a 35-17 mark. Despite Boston's slump (at least compared to its 27-3 start), Rondo was emerging as one of the league's premier point guards. Case in point: The dude is averaging a triple-double -- 24-10-10 -- through five playoff games thus far.
NBA management knows just as well as anyone that Rondo is highly crucial to the KG-less Celtics' post-season success. If his foul on Miller was determined to be flagrant after further review, Rondo could have faced a possible one-game suspension -- just as Dwight Howard is for his elbow shot to Samuel Dalembert's head. But the Boston-Chicago match-up is as competitive a series as you'll find in the first round. Subtract Rondo from the Game 6 equation and, simply stated, the Celtics don't stand a chance in Game 6 in Chicago.
The thing is: I wasn't exactly in love with NBA officiating before the aforementioned occurred; now, I think it's a bigger joke than Chad Johnson changing his legal last name to Ocho Cinco.
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