Save the NBA, Fire David Stern

The 2009 NBA playoffs have showcased everything that's great about the current version of the NBA. Unfortunately, it's also showcased everything that's wrong with the 2009 NBA.

And I'm not sure which side is winning out.

Let's start with the good.

The Celtics/Bulls series was absolutely spectacular. It was a classic matchup of the old, beaten up champion versus the young, upstart, hungry challenger.

It was everything I love about the NBA. Athletic players, great defense, better offense, and clutch shots from two of the best clutch performers in the NBA today (Ray Allen and Ben Gordon).

I can't stress how good this series was enough. The first six games were so fantastic there was no way game seven was going to live up to the standard set in the previous six games.

The Celtics went on to win, but it didn't matter. The 2009 playoffs will be remembered for the last man standing, iron-man series between the Celtics and the Bulls. ESPN classic will be replaying that series years from now. Whoever wins the championship will be an afterthought.

There were other great moments. LeBron's "shot" to win game two against the Magic. The first three games of the Western Conference Finals. Houston's taking the Lakers to Game 7 without (arguably) their best two players in uniform.

These games and moments showcased exactly what I love about the NBA.

But the rest of the playoffs have showcased exactly what I hate about the NBA.

The Western Conference Finals were ruined by the NBA.

Kobe Bryant was neutered by a ridiculous "seven technical fouls equals a one game suspension" rule. The two teams spent more time at the free throw line than actually playing the game. Officials completely screwed up games, missed a jump ball violation in Game 2, and watched as Kobe apparently tripped himself in Game 4.

In fact, the rise of the Orlando Magic is in part due to the NBA's insane rules.

You can't win consistently going to the basket anymore. Dominating the paint means getting the better end of the referees nowadays. The only way to consistently win is to play better than the other team from 18 feet and out. Period.

The Magic are loading with talented and unique players. They have the skills to play inside, but don't. Their game plan is to put Dwight Howard under the hoop to collect rebounds and launch a thousand three-pointers.

If their shot is falling, they win. If it isn't, they lose.

It's the reason why they've both lost huge leads this postseason and overcome huge deficits. It's also the reason why they were able to dispatch of the Cavs so easily. They just shot over them. When their shot was falling, and for the most part it was all series long, they were unstoppable.

Of course, it didn't help that no matter how many times they drained an open three-pointer, Mike Brown refused to change his game plan of leaving the three-point shooters open on the perimeter while attempting to half-heartedly double-team Howard.

James had to worry about the officials to play his game. And the Cavs play physical defense, which means 50% of the time the officials will take them completely out of their game. Orlando plays sporadic defense and only Howard is physical, which helps them avoid bad officiating for the most part.

Hence their run to the NBA finals.

Down the stretch against the Celtics, the Magic would give the ball to Hedo Turkoglu, let him dribble the twenty four second clock down to three or four seconds, then take a step-back, fall away three pointer.

In the games they won, the shot fell. In the games they didn't, the shot didn't fall. It's bad basketball. But in 2009, it's the only way to play winning basketball.

If you take the ball to the hoop, you're at the mercy of the refs. Maybe you'll get the call, maybe you won't. And even more frustrating is the fact that the call you get in the first quarter will be entirely different than the one you'll get in the fourth quarter.

I've read some articles blaming the officials, but really it's not their fault. The officials are bad, but they're bad because they have no idea what the right call is in any given situation.

What's a technical? What's a flagrant foul? What's a flagrant-2? How should the game be called?

Do you know what the NBA front office thinks the answer is to those questions? Neither do the officials. Which is why some officials call every bit of contact they see and others allow defenders to play physical. It's why some officials call a flagrant-1 when Rafer Alston gets thrown out of bounds by Rajon Rondo, while others would have called a flagrant-2. It's why coaches and yell and scream at some officials and get away with it, while others T them up if they breathe the wrong way.

The NBA's rules are screwed up. Period. And this postseason has been an exhibition of those screwed up rules.

ESPN's Bill Simmons and others are right. The NBA needs younger officials. They need better officials. But if they don't fix the rules, the new officials will have the same problems as the old ones.

I honestly wasn't sure where this article was going when I started writing it. But after re-reading what I have written thus far, I know exactly what I want to say.

David Stern must go.

He needs to be replaced with someone who played the game sometime in the last 20 years. Someone who understands how a game should be called. Someone who can give the officials a set of guidelines they can understand and follow, then get weed out the bad ones and replace them with younger, better ones.

The NBA is loaded with talented and athletic players. Likable players, unlikable players, all kinds of players. From a talent and marketability standpoint, the league is in fantastic shape.

But David Stern is ruining it with his inability to officiate games.

The Lakers/Nuggets series should have been a classic, instead it was mostly unwatchable. LeBron James might be the best player of this generation, but he too often relies on throwing himself at defenders (making his games painful to watch at times) because he knows he'll get to the line almost every time. The Celtics can play great defense in one game, then do the exact same thing in the next and have 100 fouls called on them.

The NBA makes the NFL's officiating look spectacular in comparison. And you know what I think about NFL officials.

So, the point of this long, rambling article is apparently this:

Save the NBA, Fire David Stern.

Questions? Comments? Insults? Comment below.

Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner at Examiner.com. He writes a column every other Thursday for Sports Central. You can e-mail him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.