Hopefully not. I did watch the game ... Crawford was clearly out of control. He claims Duncan was whining, but if it was the whining, why didn't he give Duncan a technical for whining while he was on the court? Instead he inexplicably tees him up while he's on the bench, and then ejects him for laughing. And this is the part where Crawford is blatantly lying: they showed the replay of the entire sequece between the first T and the second T. All that happened was Duncan started laughing after a bad call on the Spurs. He didn't utter a word. And the drama didn't even end with the ejection. The egregious flop by Josh Howard when he jumped on unsuspecting Oberto's back, flailed his arms wildly and got an offensive foul call among others. If I were Stern, Joey Crawford won't be officiating any games during these playoffs.
You're possibly the only person on this or any other board defending Joey Crawford, and I'm the one that's a homer and/or biased? Wow. Just wow. Talk about being blinded by your own hypocrisy. For the record, I cheered for Dallas in this game, for obvious reasons, as much as it pained me to do so... because obviously the result ended up great for the Rockets. Also, if he wasn't T'd up for an incredulous look, what was he T'd up for? Saying he got fouled? Because that's the only thing Duncan actually said to Crawford during that game (before ejection).
Joey Crawford is the one who tossed Francis in Utah a few years ago for a harmless errant elbow to Stockton. Stevie was up in arms about it after the game. I remember him telling reporters that Crawford has told him to "Get the **** off my court" when he tried to ask why he was getting ejected. Was Crawford the same ref who tossed Rasheed in the playoffs for just staring at him? I forget who that was.
Totally ridiculous. This is why I hate officials. There are way too many times when their inconsistencies and bias actually determines the outcome of games. It was extremely bad when Francis was here. It is still bad in regards to Yao. If Yao got officiated properly, he would average 35/12 per game and be the MVP. Crawford should be suspended for the rest of the season, including playoffs.
http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blo...pn/blog/index?entryID=2838794&name=stein_marc Duncan ejected? That's no joke by: Marc Stein posted: Sunday, April 15, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry filed under: Tim Duncan DALLAS -- Tim Duncan grabs rebounds, but never headlines. Tim Duncan never lets us inside. Tim Duncan is boring. Accurate scouting report, right? Wrong. Duncan's dossier needs a major rewrite after Sunday. An afternoon that was forecast to be more letdown than showdown wound up more competitive and combustible than the Mavericks or Spurs ever imagined, capped by Avery Johnson summoning Dirk Nowitzki back into the game for the final nine-plus minutes. That helped the hosts rally for a 91-86 triumph which, more than anything, seemed to suggest that Johnson simply couldn't bear to lose a home game to their hated rivals from the south, even when the game meant virtually nothing to Dallas. However . . . Don't expect to hear much more about the on-court proceedings after the way Duncan (a) was ejected for just the second time in his career and then (b) uncharacteristically unloaded on veteran ref Joey Crawford. Unloaded, actually, doesn't begin to cover it, since the famously reserved Duncan (at least in his dealings with the media) not only accused Crawford of having "a personal vendetta" against him but also revealed that Crawford challenged him to a fight. Interested yet? Duncan arrived at the final regular-season weekend of his 10th NBA season with just one overturned ejection* in all that time and seven techs for the season. But twice in a span of 1:16 in Sunday's third quarter, Duncan was hit with Ts by Crawford. While sitting on the bench. The first was more surprising than shocking. Manu Ginobili was called for a foul and Duncan -- still simmering after an offensive foul that sent him to the bench moments earlier -- voiced a protest from his seat at referee LeRoy Richardson. Crawford swooped in to T him up. Unusual, yes, but not unprecedented. The second? Call it a full-blown stunner. Duncan was still seated and laughing animatedly on the bench after a foul had been whistled on Fabricio Oberto. Undoubtedly feeling he was being shown up, Crawford hit Duncan with T No. 2. It was a scene reminiscent of the Western Conference finals in 2003 when Crawford ejected then-Mavs coach Don Nelson for standing silently (but defiantly) near the scorer's table in San Antonio after Nelson had been ordered to return to the bench. The real show, though, would take place at Duncan's locker ... after the Spurs fizzled without him in the fourth. An extended look at the quotes can be found here, but the summary is plenty good: Duncan explained in great detail how Crawford "has a personal problem with me" and repeatedly asked him before the technicals, "Do you want to fight?" Duncan also insisted that he barely spoke to Crawford during the game and that he thinks he can play through any carryover when the Spurs and Crawford inevitably cross paths in the playoffs. "I got to watch what I do, I guess," Duncan said. "I guess I can't laugh anymore. I can't enjoy the game. I'll have to sit there and put my head between my legs." My best guesses from courtside: 1. Even though the second technical was one too many -- and even though a good chunk of public opinion is going to accumulate on Duncan's side -- he's a lock to get fined for his comments. In December, remember, Jason Kidd was docked $20,000 for lashing out after a bungled call in Detroit sealed a one-point loss for the Nets. Didn't matter that Kidd was right about Vince Carter drawing a foul on Rasheed Wallace. Didn't matter that the league office deemed it a missed call as well. Kidd referred to the refs that night as "three blind mice" and Duncan just said a lot more than that. 2. Expect Crawford to be disciplined as well. The difference: Punishments for referees generally aren't made public, so we might not immediately know about any fines and/or suspensions. Yet there's no way this can be downplayed in the league office. Duncan does have a well-chronicled rep as one of the league's most frequent complainers to referees and had to have said more to Crawford over the course of the afternoon than he claims. But a referee suggesting a fight to settle things, even in jest, is no way for a referee to calm tensions, which is one of their jobs. And with players on both sides telling me they heard the word "fight" tossed around on the floor, I have no reason to doubt the veracity of Duncan's account. 3. This one really isn't a guess at all: I can't wait until the next Spurs game Crawford officiates. Should be, dare we say, pretty interesting. *About that overturned ejection? Some good trivia I had forgotten, courtesy of our pal Johnny Ludden from the San Antonio Express-News: Duncan's only other career ejection -- on Feb. 4, 2002, after an exchange with Kevin Garnett got both guys tossed -- was rescinded by the league a day later.
He def. got his T in the first quarter. This is the Clipper/Laker game from last Thursday, I know I'm being weird bringing up other games when the Lakers played last night. steddinotayto -- Smith has no cred when it comes to the Mavs. I completely admit that it would make sense that refs would bow down to Dallas in Dallas, and yesterday afternoon certainly looked like an example of such -- but the more Cuban whines, the less people think of him, and the NBA has fined him like crazy. Cuban has NEVER gone public with more than a snippet of these ref stats he compiles (mainly because there is nothing there, the great bulk of refs out there -- sorry Mark -- have no vendettas or bias), so why would the refs be scared? And just a few weeks ago, in that Playboy interview (only for the articles, my man ...) Nash said that refs actually take frustrations out on the Mavericks because of Cuban. And that's coming from a Dallas rival -- telling the world that the Mavs get cheated out of calls.
It's unfortunate that he shares the same last name as that idiot Joey Crawford, but "Danny" Crawford is probably one of the BEST officials in the game. He is one of the best officials at actually talking to players, hearing their side and has been heard on a number of occassions that he just didn't see something, he'll look for it next time etc. No ego at all. As a player, how can you be angry at that? Emjohn, another official to add to you list is Tony Brothers. He is significant mostly because of his piss poor way he call's Yao games. I swear Brothers has something against Yao. Another official I hate, don't know his name, but he is RAIL thin with black hair slicked back. My wife and I just call him slick. This is a guy that will actually T you up for just "looking" at him. Ridiculous!
Yeah, he's the one that T'ed up Deke earlier this season for wagging his finger after a block (and threatened him with ejection). The league overruled him afterwards.
If Ted Bernhardt ever seems a little odd when on the court, it's because he's been up all night. Trust me.
I am not sure Oberto didn't have his forearms and elbows up for that pick, and that was what was called. I didn't have the right angle for sure, but I could see how it might have looked that way. How about the blatant non-goaltending call when Elson practically took the ball out of the basket? So it isn't like the Spurs didn't get some calls. But the TD ejection was horrible. Despite him being a huge whiner refs got to keep their egos in check. The others calls are more standard blown calls, this was an over-zealous ref. Joey Crawford should not ref in the playoffs. But us Rocket fans and Suns fans can send Joey C a big bouquet (sp?)--some people here are really missing the big picture of how wonderful the events yesterday in that game were.
No, I'm defending him too. Like I said before, Crawford is my favorite ref in the league. He is pretty easy going. I didn't watch the entire game, but Duncan definitely was acting like a clown out there making faces and such after every call he thought was bad. And what was he doing laughing on the bench? Were the Spurs up by 20 points and everyone was telling jokes over there? NO!
Is anyone honestly surprised that redefined is defending Joey Crawford in this situation? I literally lol'ed as soon as I saw his post.
I'm defending Crawford. Not in this instance, he blew it, but in general. He is generally one of the most even-handed refs in the league. In my opinion, his crew is clearly the best. It's such a story and so surprising because it's out of character. All of the posters who say that they don't like Crawford for this or that are baffling me. If Crawford doesn't ref in the playoffs because of this, the fans will be the losers.
I understand that, but I'm talking about this particular instance. I don't know Crawford's history well enough to pass judgment on his officiating as a whole. But in this case, you're right - he made a mistake. It happens sometimes, and I'm not saying he needs to be kicked out of the league for it - but arguing that it's not a mistake is pretty silly.
