nba refs are a joke. http://deadspin.com/5392067/excerpts-from-the-book-the-nba-doesnt-want-you-to-read i still love the game though
Joe Crawford was the ref last night in the Suns-Spurs game. I knew as soon as the game started that Phoenix would win.
Why don't NBA refs have age limits? Why don't Joey get career ending injuries? Why is he still alive? I can apply this to pretty much all NBA refs. Especially that old hag who kissed Barkley. I understand reffing a past paced game (especially at an NBA level) is hard, but c'mon there has to be better ones.
Jake O'Donnell ejecting Clyde has to rank up there for me. But at least he got canned. You have to believe there's something wrong when an MLB umpire leaves baseball to go NBA officiating - umpires are damn-near blind to begin with.
The best part of the KMart video is that even the other ref is coming to talk to him and ask him WTF? Of course, Joey being above the NBA, waves him off as he approaches the scorer's table...
Was that the incident where he got ejected for unintentionally slicing the ref's nose? If it's the same, I always thought it was Steve Javie(?)
Nope. This was during the '95 playoffs. Drexler was called for a tech for arguing, then got T'd up again for continuing to argue. I remember Rudy T had to restrain Drexler after that 2nd T, otherwise he would've choked Jake to death, probably. lol. The Rockets busted O'Donnell him by sending video tape to the league where they showed him refusing to shake Drexler's hand before the game. The league "relieved him" of playoff duty for the rest of the playoffs if I recall. I think he was later fired or resigned - I don't remember, but that was the end of his career. He later admitted that he didn't like Clyde.
Tidbit: Joey Crawford also worked for the US Postal Service. http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title=Joey_Crawford
I remember that game very well....wasnt O'Donnell the same one who threw out francis who was having a career night as well?
i dont get it. he didnt even do anything wrong all he did was foul him. did stern see that? i can tell he didnt because if he did joe crawford would loose his job by now. stern such unproffesionalism
It was a definite foul, but just the wrong person went to the ft line. So in the end a foul was still committed.
I think you guys underestimate how hard it is to ref these guys. Ever sat courtside? The speed is blinding, it is impossible for them to be anywhere close to perfect. We need to get these ref "Characters" out though. You should NOT know the names of the refs If they are good ones..
I was thinking, since NBA refs are just as famous as the players, why not have them in for press conferences after games? The press could finally ask them "Tony why did you keep calling flops although the players clearly fell down the wrong way?" or "Joey why do you insist on making one sided calls then waving the other refs off when they're asking what's going on?" Who wouldn't want to hear answers to that? Stern would fine members of the press for "stupid" and "unfounded" questions and his NBA's wallet gets thicker. win-win.
Even though I quoted you in my sig I don't agree here. I agree it's hard to ref a game. Extremely hard. But some fouls are obviously bad. No excuse for what happened to Camby.
Yup, The Camby call was a joke. I'd like to think that most of our refs are some of the best, and doing the best that they can, but who knows? :grin:
