NBA Ref Crawford got gun threat by Tim Duncan and Tony Parker!

Yeah, if anything, Duncan is a Virgin-American.

I think Crawford is a walking pile of s*** and I personally am not offended by the picture, but I can't see how the league won't address this in some way.

Companies generally frown on employees threatening to kill other employees, even in jest.

 

And you realize corporations don't like photos of their employees dressing up and pretending to kill another one of their employees, right?

 

You can't tell from the picture if they actually pulled the trigger.

 

That analogy doesn't really hold. You should compare TD and TP to multimillionaires who absolutely love their game and their organization, not to any joe blow out there. In fact, TD is considered the face of the organization.

Don't compare them to you and me, who could be considered by such a photo (rightfully or wrongfully) disgruntled employees by corporate execs who largely don't know us. And conflicts between a player and a ref is in a sport, and Crawford was dead wrong and suspended for that anyhow. That is nowhere close to a conflict between me and my boss.

EVERYONE knows TD and TP were joking. And everyone knows TD is just as concerned about the company images as the owner is. If I did it about my CEO or boss, I'm not going to be viewed the same as Tim Duncan, so don't compare us to him.

Poor analogy.

 

are they pretending to kill him or just brandishing toy weapons?

the employees in question aren't in their official company uniform so I dont know how corporations feel when said employees go to a Halloween party in costume and brandish a toy weapon aimed at a parody of another one of their employees.

the front of Joey Crawford could be a zombie ref, skull face, who knows?

 

Of course you are not - you are not part of the public face of the organization (I assume). TD is - that makes it far more of an issue for the NBA.

Not sure the relevance of either of these or how it would make the circumstances better.

Really? I can answer that for you: most companies wouldn't be happy. Here, you already have some kind of subtle feud between the people involved (Crawford/Duncan). Right or wrong, integrity and respect for officials are two things you've made paramount to your organization's public image. And now you have a picture of two of your employees pretending to attack an official they have some history with. How does that play into your organization's image? How will Crawford respond? The next time Crawford blows a questionable whistle on Duncan or Parker, will this picture be part of the story? Will people question Crawford's integrity even more, thinking that maybe he's offended?

Nothing good comes out of this for your organization and lots of potential bad things do. Therefore, it wouldn't be surprising for the organization to think it's problematic and take action.

 

I think you are blowing it way out of proportion. It's just a halloween pic, and 99% of people will take it as just that.

Has Stern said anything?

 

we only see the back of his costume. it is perceived to be NBA referee Joey Crawford.

they are at a costume party on Halloween. what if we see a zombie referee with blood stains and a bullet hole through the front of his face?

other party goers aiming a gun his way at a Halloween party wouldn't really that big of an issue. this is being blown way out of proportion.

has the league or team taken action? do you really think they will?

 

You don't seem to be following your own argument. Your analogy was to compare us to TD, to make a point that we would be punished, so he should to.

It is a bad analogy to compare us to Tim Duncan, as I stated with several reasons. So, when the League decides not to do anything to TD, don't say they should have, because your boss or owner or my boss or owner would have punished us.

 

Suppose a player is privately having a conversation with an acquaintance and he's blasting the refs. And then the acquaintance, secretly recorded the conversation, releases it to the public. Should the player be punished for "disrespecting" an official?

The point is that this happened in a private gathering, and there was no intention on the part of Duncan/Parker for the picture to be made public. Its unfortunate that it happened, but Duncan and Parker didn't do anything wrong. They have a right to not like Crawford, and they have a right to express that in private. The NBA shouldn't penalize them if that gets leaked out, even if they find it embarrassing.