I believe that was Jake O'Donnell, and I don't think he ever worked again after that travesty in Phoenix. O'Donnell is on the very short list of people I would spit on if I ever met them in person. As soon as I'd identified him, it'd be time to hawk an Alomar at him.
Crawford has always hated the Rockets period. Complete and absolute BULLSH!T call. I couldnt believe it when I saw the replay's.
BK is correct. Middle of the playoffs, Jake was scheduled to ref some more games through the finals. He never ref'd another game. The league quietly told him to go away.
Honestly, Joey Crawford is one of the best refs in the game. He does all the big games and he's not afraid to call things on the home team. In fact Crawford was one of Dream's favorite refs if I remember correctly. He made a really really REALLY bad call last night but some of you don't know Joey Crawford from Peter Lawford. Most refs in the league are much worse than Crawford even if he screwed the pooch last night with that call.
I'm sorry Kelly but even with Crawford being the greatest official ever you still would be wrong choosing to lose even a modestly good NBA player(or Mobley who nobody could ever mistake for modest) over even the best zebra. I remember onhoops and the site was really good and all but whether or not Crawford screwed the pooch and he obviously and flagrantly did last night, there's no way we should ever consider a refs job irreplaceable. In my opinion he threw out francis for personal or political reasons. Maybe he believes Francis really was driving under the influence a few weeks ago(i personally believe Steve had sobered up before driving home), or maybe he doesn't like that Francis dissed Vancouver, and maybe he thought that the Jazzholes would really appreciate the help which actually suprisingly enough they didn't think that the call did anything but make the game an unfortunate farce.
It may be totally unjust and unwarranted, but I hope Steve hasn't developed a bad reputation among refs. He does get more than his share of techs, I hope he isn't marked as a mini-Rasheed Wallace.
We should never consider a player's job irreplaceable. Mobley showed while Francis was out that he's only marginally better than Ron Mercer. Teams screw up, players screw up, and refs screw up. Just look at MJ's push off vs the Jazz that cost them a shot at a game 7 as but one instance of a ref screwing up. It's part of the game - they are only human.
There is no way that was a screw-up. Crawford obviously has personal reasons for throwing Francis out, and he was waiting for any opportunity to give him a tech. I'm willing to bet that if someone were to go around and ask every other NBA referee in the league if they would've given Steve a tech for that, they would've said no. I wouldn't doubt that some of them might have said something to him to warn him, but there is no way any of them would give him his 2nd T for something like that. Just plain ridiculous.
Maybe this has been addressed before, but I don't get why the NBA isn't more like the NFL.. why can't the NBA have coaches have 2/3 contentions per game--I mean where they can contest the call and show it back on replay? That wouldn't create any more problems, would it?
We are moving on.. what do you want us to do?.. just shut up?.. this is a message board where people come and express their feelings.. There is no point of comming on a public message board and tell people to move on.. WE ARE MOVING ON.. Making a mistake is onething, correcting and admitting the mistake is another.. If a person make a mistake at a job.. and cost the company to lose money, he will get fired. They will not say "MOVE ON".. they will find way to fix the problem and take it from there.. And... How are you so sure that what Joey Crawford did was a "MISTAKE"?
Attention KellyDwyer: You never toss a teams best player or any player for that matter unless there is no doubt that he has done something that deserves getting tossed. When Cat screws up that is just part of the game. The team with the fewest mistakes usually wins. When an official makes a mistake like Crawford did it affects the game in a way that was never meant to happen. It gives the team an unfair advantage...not for just one play but for the remainder of the game. The NBA is not about the officials. The games should never be subjected to the whims of any official regardless of how well respected he may be. Officials should only be in the building to make sure that the game is played with in the spirit of the rules and nothing else. Any official that feels he needs to put his signature on the game like Joey Crawford did Thursday night has no place officiating a little league game much less a proffesional sporting event. Once again your analogy Joey Crawford and Cat making mistakes are apples and oranges. A players mistakes are a natural part of the game. When an official makes a mistake he removes one teams chance at fair competition.
The NBA needs Coach's Challenges & instant replay. Oh yeah, Kelly...why do you think Craw**** called an (alledgedly) fair game after the techs? Easy! Franchise was out and the Spazz were rolling! Oh yeah. Props to the young ref for the gutsy offensive foul call v. Malone. DAMN I hate the f*cking Jazzholes. That Stevenson airball was hilarious.
I don't think you could ever institute instant replay like the kind they have in the NFL just because of the speed of the game and the amount of plays vs. the NFL. You could end up added a full hour and completely screwing up the flow of the game if you allowed every challange for every foul. Maybe they could have situational challanges that could result in an instant replay reveiw for flagrants, break a ways and techs that result in a player being kicked out of the game or other critical situation penalties.
