You Make the Call: How Bad Is Officiating in the NBA Playoffs?

How long will it take for someone to blow the whistle on the egregious corruption perpetrated annually by officials during the NBA playoffs? Year after year, critical games are determined by illegitimate referee decisions.

How much more obvious can it be than this year’s Utah-Houston series, where a timekeeper gave the home team 10 extra seconds at the end of a game in what turned out to be a futile effort to pull out a close contest? And when an official calls a flagrant foul against the Pacers in the final seconds of a one-point game, one has to seriously question the integrity of the man with the whistle.

ROBERT T. VINTZY

Los Angeles

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Calling Reggie Miller’s aggressive “love tap” flagrant is an affront to John Starks and all the other hackers in a league where these calls are reserved for plays that jeopardize eyes and limbs, if not careers. It is another flagrant example of refs not letting the players decide the games.

RON OVADIA

Los Angeles

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The real line on Patrick Ewing’s Game 7 against the Pacers: 24 points, 22 rebounds, seven assists, five blocks--and seven fouls! Somebody, please stop the thugs of the NBA.

JERRY MOORE

Los Angeles

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Let’s get this straight. Nobody owes Pat Riley or the Knicks a damn thing. Several seasons of being ousted in the playoffs when they supposedly should have moved on means nothing. Especially to those outside of New York. With two games practically given to the Knicks on questionable calls (in New York), how can Riley already be speaking in terms of “fate” and “destiny.” Nobody owes you anything, Riley, and you’ll find that out on the road in Houston.

BILL HAZELTON

Santa Barbara

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So Allan Malamud thinks this year’s NBA playoffs have been “the dullest in recent memory”?

Let’s recap some of the incredibly boring events that we have had to endure so far: The top-seeded team in the West is upset by the eighth seed. There have been record-tying comebacks (Houston over Phoenix); record-setting comebacks (Denver over Seattle); exemplary offensive performances (Barkley’s 56, Olajuwon’s 46 and Miller’s fourth-quarter heroics); fights, bench-clearing brawls, fines and suspensions; a changing of the guard as the Bulls bow out, and, oh yes, some highly competitive basketball with a number of series being stretched to the limit.

If these playoffs are dull, I can’t wait until they get interesting again.

RUSTY THOMAS

Los Angeles