just watched the 4th q of game 5, 1988, jazz lakers playoffs.
it saddens me that jazz fanz accuse stockton and malone of flopping or playing dirty.
I believe that a careful analysis of game film would show that stockton holds the all time record for taking a shot , not flopping, not even reacting, and NOT getting a call. This statistic would probably be as amazing as his steals and assists records if the league kept track of this.
As evidence, in this game , Cooper simply runs over Stockton while they were both going for a lose ball. Should have been a foul on Cooper, but no. Hard to tell from the tape, but the Lakers retained possession. it appears they called a foul on Stockton, which was a terrible call. I never hear Cooper criticized for his dirty play.
Soon after, the great and highly respected Kareem , who I never hear get criticized for his flopping or dirty play, Kareem flops shamelessly to pick a totally bogus 5th foul on Eaton. On the very next play, Kareem is called for a foul, and Kareem goes ballistic, crying and whining like a 2 year old.
If either of these plays were called differently, Utah probably wins this series. In fact, Utah was the better team that year. The Lakers got more calls. The Jazz flopped less, played dirty less. They were the better team. In every game that the refs let Eaton play without making a bunch of terrible calls to put him on the bench, the Jazz blew the Lakers off the floor. If Eaton spent half of the game on the bench with a bunch of BS calls, then it would still be a close game.
Yea, after experiences like that, the Jazz probably learned to sell the call some. You have to in the NBA, or you don't get calls. However, when the Jazz played the Lakers, the Kings, the Mavs, the Rockets, the Spurs, the Nuggets, the Sonics, or the Bulls in the playoffs, the Jazz got less calls, flopped less, and got away with less travels and less dirty play than their opponents. I don't understand how so many supposed Jazz fans think otherwise. The games are on TV, all you have to do is watch them, and be intelligent enough to believe your own eyes, not what fans and sportscasters biased in favor of the Jordans and Kobes tell you to think.