Back in the days when Larry Bird was playing, opponents used to gripe about him getting all the calls.
Now it's Michael Jordan's turn to rule the NBA, and Bird's turn to whine.
"I tell my guys, `You're not going to get the calls in this series. You've just got to try to play through it,' which they have been," said Bird, now coach of the Indiana Pacers. "In the next game, I just hope we get a fair shake. Well, at least 70-30."
Jordan hears this and just laughs.
"Larry sounds more like a coach when he starts to complain that I'm getting more calls than his team is getting," he said. "Back in the day when he played, we certainly complained about all of the calls he was getting. Now that he's complaining, we know he's a coach."
Bird knows Jordan is going to get some breaks. He is, after all, the five-time MVP of the league playing for the five-time NBA champions. But what irks Bird is that the referees don't seem to want to call fouls on anyone wearing a Bulls uniform in the Eastern Conference finals.
He's especially upset with Scottie Pippen, who's disrupted Indiana's offense with his smothering defense on Pacers point guard Mark Jackson. Pippen has been bumping, grabbing and chesting Jackson throughout Games 1 and 2, but Bird said the referees have turned a blind eye to it.
The tight defense is costing the Pacers dearly. With Jackson bottled up, Indiana's entire offense is stalled. Jackson can't pass the ball out to Reggie Miller or toss it in to Rik Smits because Pippen is all over him.
The Bulls lead the series 2-0, with Game 3 on Saturday at Market Square Arena.
"I'd like to see Scottie Pippen guard Michael Jordan fullcourt like Scottie guards Mark Jackson and see how long he stays in the game," Bird said. "But he plays with Michael and he plays for the Bulls. . . . That's why he should stay in Chicago."
But the Bulls say they're not getting any special treatment. Toni Kukoc and Dennis Rodman were tossed out of Game 1 with fouls, and Rodman and Randy Brown are the only two players to get technicals so far. Jordan even had three fouls in Game 2.
Chicago went to the line more than the Pacers (39 times to 32) Tuesday, but the disparity wasn't as bad as in Game 1 (37 to 25).
Despite Bird's griping, his players say the fouls aren't the real problem.
"They're playing extremely well defensively. We've got to handle it better," Chris Mullin said. "We all got to go out and play aggressive. If we get fouls, it's part of the game."
Miller agreed. Miller has taken almost as much of a beating as Jackson, getting dogged relentlessly by Ron Harper. Unlike past playoff series, when Miller has cranked his game up a notch and killed opponents with his 3-pointers, Harper hasn't given him enough breathing room to find his touch.
Miller scored 19 points Tuesday, but he was just 4-of-13 from the field. His 16 points in Game 1 tied his playoff low this season.
"I'm not going to gripe about how someone's playing defense, because I try and get away with as much as possible, too," Miller said. "We know they're going to get all the `reputation' calls, the benefit-of-the-doubt calls. They're the champs."