I agree wit the original subject of this post and the creator. This is what I sent as a comment to Scott Gullan of the hearald sun:
Dear Scott Gullan, I watched the entire game and was disgusted in the officiating from early in the second 1/4 onwards. It apperaed the officials changed personalities. If that is the status quo from FIBA officials then int. b/ball is in big trouble. My feelings were supported when I saw Lauren Jackson speak to an official after the game while she was shaking hands with the opposition, you can clearly see her say "that is the worst display of refereeing I have.....". Not sure how much background you have in the game but if you have another look at the tape and have a chat to some others you will find similar opinions on how bad the officiating was. In my opinion if the officials continued refereeing the game the way they did in the 1st 1/4 a blowout similar to the US vs China game would have easily occurred. Jackson's 3rd and fourth fouls were pathetically wrong not to mention the travelling violation called on her while being pushed out of bounds. The Opals including their coach Jan Stirling and assitant Gary Fox need to be commended for their composure. If Gary Fox was experiencing that kind of refereeing in an WNBL game, heads would be rolling! I am not sure what comments about officaiting you can add to your reporting, or if you want to try to be diplomatic for fear of FIBA officials turning feral on the team in future games etc... but don't bag the Opals for letting the Barazilians back in the game, the officails needed to be thanked for that!
At least 'The Age' reporter Mitchell Murphy quoted Jan Stirlings comments "Handling adversity is one of our themes and we were certainly challenged in a number of areas tonight," Stirling said.
"We scored 80 against a really quality team.
"We had to weather the storm (after three quarter time) - there was obviously some frustration with some of the calls."
Go Aussies!!
