I've been reading with some fascination the Rockets' fans assessment of the officiating last night, which many have declared to be the worst they've ever seen.

With the exception of the (dare I say it) flop that Roy pulled off in the corner to get a foul call on Battier, I didn't notice much that was terrible last night.

Actually, what I did notice was what I thought were bad calls against the Blazers.  When Yao accidentally knocked a Houston player into Joel, who was facing the other way and was called for his 5 foul, for instance. 

But I'm also fascinated that we can apparently see the exact same play in slow motion and disagree with it.  The foul on Rudy with 1.3 seconds.  A couple of Houston fans swear that no one touched him (after viewing it over and over), while a few Portland fans declare he was tripped (after viewing it over and over).  I myself only viewed it once and thought, whew, thank God it was Rudy this time and not Travis.

Apparently fans see what they want to see. Could the refs be better, can fans ever be objective, do the refs really cost teams wins?  I know I should probably have just let this die, but it seems like an interesting psychology experiment in the making.

Oh, and could someone clear up for me once and for all: are you allowed to hold on to the other guy's jersey?  Is this a foul??