I watched the video of this and I agree that Duncan was (or seemed to) provoking Crawford on the 2nd one. Yet, as the referee, he has to be bigger than that. People don't go to NBA games to see Joey Crawford or Steve Javie or Dick Bavetta, etc. officiate. They go to see Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitski, Yao, T-Mac, etc. play basketball. The sooner that these prima donna officials realize this, the better it will be for everyone, especially for the fans. I am hoping that with this decision going public that it causes some of these other refs with the quick whistle to start shaping up.
VERY surprised to hear Stern say that he won't review the Crawford case during the postseason. I understand it, but I was shocked to hear Stern make no bones about that fact. He didn't hesitate before shooting it down. I will point this out: we know that Crawford is a fantastic, if flawed, referee. Taking him off the playoff roster means one open spot for a Zach Zarba-type to move up. Not good. He needed to be suspended, but nobody wins from this.
Oh I am sure there was no planning involved. But I think Timmy acted that way on purpose, thinking there was no way Crawford would ring him up.
I agree completely with you, Kelly; however, it is like someone else said - I think Stern was very worried that if Crawford officiated ANY NBA playoff game that there would be people complaining about him and that he was "out to get" certain people and teams. And David Stern hates hearing that stuff - I'm glad that he realizes that the game shouldn't be about the official. When you go to a basketball game, you should be able to leave and ask this question, "Who officiated that game?" If you can answer that question, then more than likely, you have a referee who is trying to be bigger than the game.
well said can't agree more.. I sure hope Crawford can get his temper under control. He is still one of the best refs out there.
Yes it was. In San Antonio no less. I think I remember Hakeem asking one of the refs about how this hurt their home court by giving SA another chance in OT. The ref replied "you should of beat Dallas" (the home game loss before the SA road game loss).
Not always. There are plenty of refs that we know because of their incompetence. The NBA ignores incompetence in their refs. The fans lose on most of the games that they officiate.
Great calls emjohn -- but what needs to be pointed out is the fact that the ABC showcase walks hand in hand with Crawford's foolishness. As a ref, you can't work in a vacuum. You HAVE to know that you're not on some UHF affiliate or working a Wednesday night game in Charlotte. You have to be aware of the ABC klieg lights and balance different reactions with the atmosphere. No way would Stern have handed a suspension this harsh had the game not been on ABC, but the fact that the game was on ABC makes Crawford's actions all the more egregious.
They don't ignore them. There's just not a lot of great refs out there. It's a hard game to call, and not a lot of people want to call it. And the refs get way worse as you move down the pike (NCAA, HS, etc). I don't know what more the NBA could do to stem the bad officiating. Get rid of the bad refs, and even worse refs will take their place. It's not an easy job.
I'm happy about it. Joey is a good ref with a bad temper and ego problem You just can't dictate games like that.....the games has to be decided by the players and he is an habitual line stepper. Good Job Mr. Stern
Yesterday a caller called into 610 and asked Rich Lord if he remembered an incident between Hakeem, Crawford, and Bill freakin Fitch 20 years ago. Rich said he remembered, that Crawford gave Olajuwon a tech, Fitch called a timeout, and Crawford got into the Rockets huddle and told Crawford something to the effect of he better control Hakeem.
I think he just did it to the wrong guy. Tim has a history of being a respectful on the court. Any other player or at least a player with a bad history in the nba would have gotten Joey a fine or something like that.
Crawford got exactly what his cocky ass deserved, a seat reffing at home for the rest of the post season. although as kelly said, no one really wins in this situation if you have another inexperienced/rookie ref replace a fairly competent, yet egotistic referee like Crawford. just awesome to see refs being held accountable for completely ludicrous actions sometimes. hopefully this begins a trend of cracking down on referees with either extreme biases towards one team/player and incidents like this.
Maybe I don't want enough NCAA bball, but I feel like they officiate better than the NBA. The NBA lets a lot of traveling go and you get a lot of "superstar" calls as well. oh yah... lets not forget what Crawford did to Deke
That's a pretty good assessment of Crawford. He's a good ref but he is a no nonsense ref bordering on control freak. Glad to see this suspension, his t'ing up TD affected the game and perhaps the 2/3 seed ranking in the west. No referee should arbitrarily affect a critical game like Sundays game.
I agree, especially at the high levels. NCAA officials have a little less to worry about (no defensive 3-seconds, no block/charge circle), but the high-level NCAA officials do a markedly better job in general. Good big men get cheated even more in NCAA than in the NBA, mostly due to seeing even fewer of them.
If "not a lot of people want to call it," there's only one way to solve the problem: Pay them big money. That'll attract competent people. And dole out more accountibility like this. That'll eliminate incompetent ones.
