Crawford ejected a player for laughing with his teammates and not saying a single word. I don't think Duncan has to try to make Crawford look like an ass with this particular incident. What you're suggesting is a little ridiculous... I know the looks you're referring to, but are you suggesting the NBA players can't look shocked about a particular call without risking ejection? If you take physical or verbal action with an official or anyone on the court, that's subject to technical and to ejection. I think everyone understands that. But trying to psychoanalyze a player and eject someone based on an expression or a laugh is over the top and ridiculous. First of all, almost all stars whine. That's the NBA. Second, you have a problem with a player whining, then T them up when they do it. Don't eject them when they're laughing with their teammates and not even saying a word to you.
It was already quite a longshot. Even if the Spurs swept all games the Suns would have had to go 0-2 when they were trying to win. Parker's comments at halftime suggested both teams were playing hard many because is was "good practice"--and I suppose because they don't like each other has much to do with it. Dallas had zero stakes other than momentum.
What crawford did took the cake from when a ref in soccer gave David Beckham a red card for clapping sarcastically at a foul the ref called. Same thing happened to Wayne Rooney with Manchester United. Crawford just eclipsed that, utterly ridiculous, as much as I dislike Timmy D and his Spurs, it was ridiculous.
Crawford was way over the line BTW--I expect officials to not get ego involved. But I am glad for it. Phx will mail it manana I think and it is much more likely the Rockets can get some extra rest. I don't like SA or Dallas--so this was great!!!!
This "all stars" whine Spur homer crap is a joke. No way do all stars whine to the degree that Tim Duncan does. If you can't see that, you are officially a Spurs fan. It didnt take a psychiatrist to see that Duncan was mocking Crawford. The only times he laughed were after what he thought were bad calls. Hardly rocket science. Duncan knew this was got him the first technical and proceeded to continue with this act as if to dare Crawford to do it again. I know you're a bigtime Spurs homer and always have been, but your comment about risking ejection for the incredulous look is silly. Duncan wasn't T'd up for that. But if you give a look like that on 95% of calls like Duncan clearly does instead of maybe a few here and there like most other NBA players do, they are only human and will get annoyed by you and will T you up quicker than they do other palyers. Again, Duncan is VERY lucky he wasn't amongst the league leaders in technicals this yr because they put in the rule this past offseason to crack down on the complaining players did towards officiating. Whats next, are you going to go into a "Ginobili flops" thread and say "All players flop". Besides Rasheed Wallace, objectively name me ONE player in the NBA who whines to refs more than Tim Duncan. If this was any player in the league other than Tim or Rasheed, I'd empathize, but with the amount of whining Tim does, he deserves whatever craps NBA refs want to dole out to him.
If you don't think Duncan is a saint, why don't you believe he called Crawford a piece of **** and why would you believe him over what Crawford said?
I like Crawford a lot, I like Duncan a lot, and haven't seen the game yet (tomorrow afternoon, have a lot to wade through). That said, off quotes alone (refs are allowed, sometimes, to talk to pool reporters to give quotes after games where the NBA deems the refs part of the story), it looks like JC needs to let some stuff go. Sending a T over to Duncan because of stuff said "behind his back?" Joey, the entire NBA fandom knows your name and has called you a blankety-blank at some point, why NOW do you freak out over stuff said behind your back? Get over it. I'm rewatching Clippers/Lakers from last Thursday right now -- Kobe should have been ejected midway through the first quarter: he picked up an early T, then complained (after the refs missed two distinct fouls on a drive and shot) with a hand-clap after a missed shot, then yelled at the ref all the way up the court. The ref knew he blew it, and didn't call a second T. Now, some of this board's bigger anonymous internet badasses may complain about a "star system" after reading that, but the NBA would turn into a pretty boring place if these badasses got their way. Let the player vent, let the game (and playoff race) go on. Be the bigger man. Hopefully Stern nips this in the bud RFN. I have the Spurs playing until the second week of June, and Crawford's going to have to work one of their games at some point.
Oh, and the "refs get scared in Dallas" bit? Bogus. Never believe anything you read by Sam Smith when it (indirectly or not) concerns Mark Cuban. Even before Cuban became the prat he is today, Smith was advocating his dismissal from the NBA. Told me, straight up, "Cuban is bad for the NBA." We're talking 2000, and before he started to take in the fines during the 2000-01 season (and acting like a douche, like putting the freeze-frame picture of a purported goal tend on the arena big screen following a close Mavs loss where they should have gotten a late goaltending call). Smith HATES Cuban, and will go out of his way -- more or less make stuff up -- to make Cuban look like an insidious menace to the NBA. It's a real dick move ... but when you're dealing with Smith and Cuban, why would you expect anything else?
As much as I hate the spurs, that call was completely ridiculous! The refs should not be a factor in the outcome of a game like this.
Nope, all players do. Show me one player that doesnt get that "what I fouled him??" look after the whistle...ever. LOL...ridiculous...well if you look at our own team, youd see Mutombo. Who has probably never fouled another player ever. Nor has he ever not had some kind of response to the whislte. WTF are you on man? First, it doesnt take a rocket scientist, to figure out that Laughing, is not a foul, or Technical. Sorry bro, your waaaaaaaaaay out there on this one. So what if he laughed. Is that a foul? A Technical? Was he on the court, did he distract the game, show up the ref? Robert Horry was laughing too, where was his T? Dude, you seriously are on some kind of Hatorade to defend Crawford in any way shape or form. God, must everyone always resort to calling out someones fandom? Its like the 3rd grade thing to do. You can NOT consider a player on the bench, talking to a teammate with no intent of the ref hearing him a first T. Nor can you consider laughing about a bad call a second T. Its stupidity to even defend this call. LOL....WOW! Your on fire dude. Chauncy Billups has almost as many Ts as Rasheed Wallace. There you go. Wrong. Every game is a new scenario, and NOTHING should be carried over. How weak is your argument? Thats just pathetic to think. Thats probably the same thinking that made Crawford T up Tim those two times. And the same T's are what 99.99999999999999999999999999999. Percent of NBA fans so upset.
I felt like I needed to add on about the "Sam Smith hates Cuban" bit. I've been doing this, online, for ten years. And in that time (hell, in just the last season, really), I've gotten hundreds of emails pointing out that I "hate" every single team in this league. Every one of them. 60-win teams, 15-win teams, my hometown Bulls (just a week ago!), EVERY team. Every NBA fan who reads assumes that certain writers just "hate" teams, usually their favorite. And the reaction, when Writer X writes something nice about Team Y is always hilarious: "I'm surprised this came from ___, because usually ___ hate the ____" It's BS. We don't have the time to "hate" anyone. Charley Rosen (who I love) might be the exception, but he hates everybody. So believe me when I point out to a rare occasion of a writer who truly hates certain players/teams. Sam Smith HATES Mark Cuban. And LeBron. And KG. And kittens, as far as I can tell.
Mockingly applauding a ref will always get you a yellow, or, if you already have a yellow, a red card in soccer, which means you'll get ejected. And yes, Duncan whines all the time. I also think that the ejection happened more because of the buildup of anger about the whining, but that should not be a motive for refs, so I think the ejection in this particular case was unwarranted. Doesn't make Duncan less of an ass, though.
Kelly, Kobe got his T in the third quarter after his tantrum you described... after he threw his hands in the air and ran up the court, the ref T'd him up during the next stoppage of play... i didnt see the first quarter, but I was definitely hoping the ref would T him up on that third quarter play and at first i thought he was getting star treatment, sure enough he got the technical... I think Duncan was given a warning by way of the first technical... he wasnt just "laughing on the bench" he was specifically laughing at JC's calls, in a passive aggresive, getting the last laugh , very smartass kind of way... just as the players are preparing for the playoffs, so are the refs... JC was sending a message
you can't throw a player out of a game because you think they're mocking you by laughing. The refs are there to make sure they're playing good basketball, they're not suppose to affect the outcome of the game like that over somethign that trivial.
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maybe you're thinking of another game? kobe got it in the 1st quarter after mobley stripped it and saved it from going out of bounds. got T'd up right away. and then b****ed a lot the rest of the game w/o another one.
