I think Joey Crawford simply a bad Referee, but I believe Dick Bavetta is much worse because he is just bias with calls against us. We will have no chance if it was Bavetta tonight, atleast I still got some hope with Crawford. And like others mentioned before, Tony brothers was terrible 90% of the time, but he did okay last game. So..... You never know. Maybe Stern is setting up the Rockets winning the first 2 games in LA, and then having the Lakers come back to win the series in dramatic fashion. NBA.... where "amazing" happen right?
My only issue with the bad refs is when they make a call that one of the other officials had a better angle at. I mean, if you are blocked by some big bodies dont just assume the foul was made behind that wall. Let one of the other officials who got a better angle make that call. See the call. Make the call. Learned that at the age of 15 in my first baseball umpiring class.
Is it hilarious that Crawford is doing this game or what? Way too strange to be a coincidence. Ridiculous.
This should be a classic Crawford game. I just hope he keeps it fair and balance but then again he likes to take over a game.
That link was posted yesterday. At that time, the link showed the refs who worked last nights games. The content on that paged changed this morning to reflect tonight's games. So when he said "he isn't working tonight", it referred to last nights games.
Bavetta isn't horrible, he just seems to go with the crowd and favors home teams. But at least he discusses his calls with the players, and doesn't eject someone for laughing on the bench, unlike Crawford.
This isn't good. I hate Crawford with a passion. He loves pleasing the crowd, unless the game is in San Antonio.
You guys really should read what is posted on wikipedia about Crawford. It is pretty funny! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Crawford
Here is the text before it gets deleted: In the 2009 Playoffs, Crawford created considerable controversy with questionable calls in the second game of the 1st round series between the Houston Rockets and Portland Trailblazers. Major outcry from Rockets fans came from the final 1.3 second of the game. The Rockets were down by two points, and Rudy Fernández tripped and fell down while attempting to take a throw in from out of bounds. Fernandez clearly knocked the ball out of bounds and was not touched by a Rockets player. Crawford who was only a few feet away automatically called the foul on Houston despite no evidence of contact, sealing the game for the Portland Trailblazers.[13] The Rockets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their 2nd round series. This victory was very surprising to most analysts, as they had all picked the Lakers to win the series in 5 (some said 6) games. On the morning of Game 2, Crawford was announced to be head referee of the game and sparked a massive increase in tissue sales all over the greater Houston metropolitan area. The N.B.A., which has been under attack by claims of corruption, is in some ways validating the words of these conspiracy-theorists. Crawford has a well-known history of bad-calls and grudges against teams (see Tim Duncan incident). It has also been speculated that David Stern (N.B.A. Commissioner) is trying to make a "Lebron vs. Kobe" Finals. To many, the appointment of Joey Crawford for Game 2 is his way of helping this cause.
