The Underdogs

It's taken less than three months for Firefox to reach 20 million downloads. In that time, Internet Explorer's share of the browser market has dropped below 90% for the first time since Communicator 4 was released and everyone just gave up on it. Meanwhile, Slashdot finally got around to mentioning the release of K-Meleon 0.9, which I still think will have a nice little niche for itself once Firefox becomes ubiquitous and the geekiest of us start looking for a less-mainstream, but just as good, alternative.

In another underdog development, Kelly Dwyer at SI.com seems to have noticed that the Memphis Grizzlies have quietly become one of the better teams in the NBA. But even after winning fifty games last season, it's staggering how little respect they get from NBA officials. It's not a secret to anyone that the league office would much rather see its marquee teams make the playoffs and get the nationally televised wins, but is that really a valid excuse to turn the referees into hired cronies? Even against bad teams like Utah and the Clippers, if the Griz are winning by ten or more, calls start going against them almost immediately. And in the fourth quarter, they don't get any calls at all. I've seen it again and again and again. I can count on one hand the number of games Memphis has played in the last two seasons with balanced officiating. There was even a game earlier this season, at home against Houston, where the refs made seven consecutive bad calls in the third quarter, all against the Griz. I saw the replays: they were all bad calls.

What's especially aggravating is that the Griz players, for the most part, have stopped complaining to the refs entirely, while certain teams (OK, the San Antonio Spurs) clearly get the benefit of the doubt every night and yet whine and bitch like spoiled little girls after every call that goes against them. Tim Duncan and coach Greg Poppovich are particularly guilty of this. The other night in a game on national television, I watched Coach Pop scream for five minutes about how the net on one of the baskets was different from the other, and therefore the Spurs were at a disadvantage. Excuse me? It was different because it had to be replaced mid-game after one of your players hung on the original net and broke it. So shut the fuck up and play the game.