<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The NBA ejected veteran referee Joey Crawford on Tuesday for the rest of the season and the playoffs. And as the police sergeant said when examining the body with 18 knife wounds, "Foul play is suspected." The suspension came from Sunday's nationally televised dust-up with San Antonio Spurs star Tim Duncan during a game with the Dallas Mavericks and suggests something may be rotten with the state of the NBA. Worse, it apparently sends a chilling message to officials that appears to contradict Commissioner David Stern's edict from last year's playoffs that players need to tone down petty complaining about fouls. Perhaps most flagrant, though, is the loss of a respected and credible official who only last week might have saved the NBA from Malice at the Palace II. It was Crawford who intervened quickly when Richard Hamilton was challenging Bulls rookie Tyrus Thomas, a clash that had the makings of a potential riot given Thomas was hit with a thrown object from the stands when he left the floor. Though Thomas seemed guilty of nothing, Crawford acted decisively to eject both players and quickly restore calm, the action of a veteran official that both teams privately applauded. Now Crawford, 55, who is the active leader in calling postseason games, is gone for the playoffs and perhaps his career.</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Now, with the league action against the passionate and accomplished Crawford, it also apparently endorses the star system it so often denies is in place. If it were Robert Horry, would the league have reacted the same? Duncan is regarded as one of the sacred cows of the league. He has just one other ejection in his career, and the NBA overruled it. No, you don't mess with Stern's favorites. Meanwhile, with teams such as the Timberwolves apparently throwing games for better draft position by sitting out its best players (mystery injury to Kevin Garnett), you would think the NBA had better things to do.</div> Source: Chicago Tribune
Lol, love the "mystery injury to Garnett"... Ahahahaha... Kinda like the mystery injury to Michael Redd after playing over 50 minutes the night before that's sidelining him for some crazy amount of games... Or the "we're letting Paul Pierce fully recover from whatever fake ailment we wanna give him" scenario... NBA Action!!! Gotta love it!!!
I don't agree with this article at all. He's pointing to the Chicago incident like it was good officiating. It wasn't at all. Sure he restored calm. But that's not that difficult to do. The more important thing is to make the right call and he blew it by ejecting Tyrus. I don't think Crawford was suspended because he went after a star player. I mean he got in a lot of trouble from Stern when he went after the Dallas coaches a couple years ago. They aren't star players or anything. Its more a case of him taking over the game and letting his bias influence his decisions.
I dunno, it bugs me that Crawford's not going to be part of the playoff officiating, he's a huge talent. I think a lesser slap on the wrist could have sent Crawford a message not to get carried away during the remaining season. How come the National Basketball Referee Association hasn't put out a statement? Stern's decision is suspicious and what role does Stu Jackson really play in all this??
I agreee in some parts to the article. Ejecting Tyrus was a bad call though because the kid was calmed down already once Deng was walking him around the court away from Hamilton. Hamilton followed him around the floor mouthing off at him for what the only reason being is that night Hinrich wouldn't let him do anything offensively. The one who paid for the most part was Tyrus Thomas and for no apparent reason what-so-ever.
<div class="quote_poster">jcart Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I dunno, it bugs me that Crawford's not going to be part of the playoff officiating, he's a huge talent. I think a lesser slap on the wrist could have sent Crawford a message not to get carried away during the remaining season. How come the National Basketball Referee Association hasn't put out a statement? Stern's decision is suspicious and what role does Stu Jackson really play in all this??</div> Cart, I don't care how much of a talent you think he is, but a biased official is really not an official at all. You CANNOT have a proven biased individual calling games the magnitude of playoff games. You cannot have a biased official calling any games PERIOD. What statement is the ref association going to put out??? "We have been blatantly caught making bad calls and affecting the outcome of games, but we disagree with the judgement on Joey Crawford." WHAT THE HELL?!? Cart, are you an obvious ref plant using these forum boards??? Perhaps you're a misunderstood part-time ref of some rec league somewhere. No disrespect, just a bit of kidding, but you seriously cannot have those beliefs without some type of personal connection to the situation. I cannot see how a casual observer or basketball fan would have your point of view.
Although, I disagree with him being suspended for so many games, it was pretty unusual for him to suddenly eject Tim Duncan for laughing, and to actually ask him to a fight??? That's pretty weird. But, at the most I think he should just be suspended for a couple of games.
Stern made the right decision, Crawford ejecting a player for laughing on the bench was the last straw.
Wow, an idiot wrote that article. The dismissal of Crawford was justified. He would've wrecked the playoffs for the fans. He's too much of an arrogant hothead. He wants to be the center of attention. I mean, you do have to give the respect that refs deserve if you're a player, but at the same time, this is a player's game, not a ref's.
