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you joey!
ah , I forgot. Reg season ends tomorrow. My bad. I guess they'll bring it up eventually. Saturday? Sunday?
you joey!
Why isn't Dan Crawford suspended yet? He has been a terrible ref as well.
hahahaha this is the highlight of my day
Well, I guess that's it. I can't believe he was suspended for the rest of the year.
I think Joey Crawford is one of the best refs in the game. It will be a shame if his career ends this way.
I'd disagree with you on that one. I think Dan Crawford might be among the top 3-4 officials in the game.
More to the point, however, Dan Crawford doesn't pull bull antics like ejecting players who are laughing on the bench. In fact, Danny Crawford might be among the most thick-skinned officials in the game; like Bavetta, he rarely doles out technicals to anyone. In part, that's probably because he gets fewer complaints from players (because I think he's among the more consistent officials) and in part, I think that's because he gives players and coaches plenty of leeway to talk to him about whatever issues they have.
This suspension isn't about whether Joey Crawford makes unpopular decisions; this is about Joey Crawford deciding that he's bigger than the game and detracting from the NBA product by putting his personal perception of disrespect ahead of the game itself. Danny Crawford hasn't ever done anything remotely close to that.
About Time! Who The F*ck Does Joey Think He Is? Fans Attend The Games And Watch At Home To See The 'teams' Play! Nobody Gives A Sh*t About Who's Calling The Game! Joey Crawford Is An Excellent Official But That' All! Enjoy Your Vacation Joey And Don't Come Back! Now Who's Laughing You Rat Bas !
does anyone know if Stern or anyone mentioned the "do you want to fight" rumor. is it true??????
Um, David Stern has run officials (Jake O'Donnell) LONG before Cubes was on the scene.I'm sure the ultimate attention would love the credit, though.
No. We want less YOU.
Hasn't Crawford screwed the Mavs in the past as well?
Stern is a Godfather. He knows that if he fires Crawford, he becomes a martyr figure, so he cuts his ball off in public, and knowing his huge ego, hands him some rope. Joey ties it around his neck, and jumps off the cliff.
Actually, if he were a Godfather, there would be one Family in NY, and they'd be listed on the NYSE and making tons of money.
i wouldn't mess with him
Omfg! I had no idea who I was messing withi wouldn't mess with him
You underestimated the ignorance of MavsFan if your over/under was over 10 seconds.ROFLMMFAO!
I was going to start a poll on the over/under on the number of posts it would take before someone posted this exact thing!
Who wants to fight?
Dan Crawford is far and away the best ref in the league. The Mavs Fans hate him because he calls the game as it is supposed to be called. This hurts the Mavs against teams with tougher inside games and stronger defenses. And it does not reward the Mavs with FT's for cheap flops and out of control drives like Dirk, JHo and Terry thrive on.
isnt this guy the same guy all thugged out in mavs ?i wouldn't mess with him
i totally agree YELLING " ing piece of " is worthy of an ejection from the game, but getting a tech for smiling is stupid.
April 18, 2007
Referee Who Ejected Duncan Is Himself Suspended
By LIZ ROBBINS, NYTimes
Just days before the start of the playoffs, the N.B.A. indefinitely suspended one of its top referees, Joey Crawford, for inappropriate behavior during Sunday’s San Antonio-Dallas game when he ejected Tim Duncan.
Duncan, who had been whistled earlier for a technical foul, was ejected by Crawford late in the third quarter for laughing from the bench after his teammate Frabricio Oberto was called for a foul. Duncan left the court and muttered an obscenity at Crawford, and yesterday the N.B.A. fined Duncan $25,000 for doing that.
“Joey Crawford’s handling of this situation failed to meet the standards of professionalism and game management we expect of N.B.A. referees,” Commissioner David Stern said yesterday in a statement. “Especially in light of similar prior acts by this official, a significant suspension is warranted. Although Joey is consistently rated as one of our top referees, he must be held accountable for his actions on the floor, and we will have further discussions with him following the season to be sure he understands his responsibilities.”
After the Spurs’ 91-86 loss, Duncan told reporters that he believed Crawford had a vendetta against him.
“Before he gave me the two technical fouls, he made a call and I was shaking my head, and he walks down and stares at me,” Duncan told The San Antonio News-Express. “He says, ‘Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?’ I didn’t say anything to him there, either.”
Crawford was interviewed by a pool reporter after the game and said that Duncan had been “complaining the whole time.”
“And then he went over to the bench and he was over there doing the same stuff behind our back,” Crawford added. “I hit him with one and he kept going over there, laughing, and I look over there and he’s still complaining. So I threw him out.”
In an interview yesterday on the ESPN program “Pardon the Interruption,” Stern dismissed the notion of a vendetta and said Crawford did not show remorse when they spoke on Monday. Stern also indicated that Crawford may not want to come back next season.
“He doesn’t think he did anything wrong,” Stern said. “Probably, he doesn’t wish to work in the N.B.A. anymore. It’s our plan to talk about the future.”
Crawford, in his 31st season as an N.B.A. referee, has been a fixture, having officiated more playoff games (266) and more N.B.A. finals games (38) than any other active referee.
Stern was upset that Crawford had not heeded his admonition from an incident in 2003. Crawford was called into league offices to discuss how he gave four technical fouls to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals with Spurs. He had ejected Don Nelson, who was the Mavericks’ coach at the time, for standing by the scorer’s table in apparent frustration, and later ejected Del Harris, the Mavericks’ assistant coach.
Stern considered Crawford’s behavior grandstanding and warned him that he would not tolerate another such incident. Crawford returned to referee two N.B.A. finals games that year between the Spurs and the Nets.
“He’s been specifically asked by me to change his conduct and he wasn’t able to do it,” Stern said on ESPN. The indefinite suspension, Stern said, was a result of “our earlier interaction where Joey knows our views on, shall I say, his loss of control. You just can’t keep doing that.”
Messages left at the National Basketball Referees Association to reach Crawford were not returned yesterday. Lamell McMorris, a spokesman for the association, declined to comment. Duncan and Spurs officials declined to comment.
Billy Hunter, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, has been critical of the league’s giving referees powers to discipline players’ behavior.
“In my view, Joey Crawford clearly went over the line in this instance and some level of discipline was warranted,” Hunter said yesterday in a statement. “At the same time, I think part of the problem lies with the new rules regarding technical fouls and the lack of consistency with which those rules have been applied.”
Crawford was not the first referee the N.B.A. suspended this season.
Rodney Mott, in his ninth season, was suspended three games without pay in January for directing an obscene gesture and using inappropriate language toward a fan in a game in Portland.
Crawford, with his bald pate and expressive face, is one of the more con uous referees in the game. He is known for his emotional style and comes from a lineage of high-profile officials. His brother, Jerry, is an umpire for Major League Baseball. His father, Shag, was also a major league umpire.
Yesterday, Stern did not consider Crawford’s pedigree, but rather how his behavior affected the image of the game.
I'm worried about the implications of that too.
Duncan did more against the bad refs in one week, than Cuban did his whole life.props to Cuban for making the league more accountable for refs. I understand why you hate him, it's very easy to do so. But give the man credit for making referees more visible and accountable.
About the $25000 fine: I expected more, around $50000. But considering the situation and Duncan's history and reputation I think it was ok. He got a 50% discount for being Tim Duncan.
now that everything is past, let's laugh with Tim:
(click on the picture to see it in the original size)
Inspired on SpursTalk posts.
I only did this with the purpose of humour. Not recommended to Spurs haters.
An NBA Whistle-Blower Exposed
By Michael Wilbon
Wednesday, April 18, 2007; E01
Commissioner David Stern needed to do something. Six months after making it a point of emphasis that referees crack down on excessive player behavior, the NBA simply could not let one of its referees, Joey Crawford, slide for throwing Tim Duncan out of a game for laughing after Crawford said to him, "Do you want to fight?"
The NBA's behavior campaign, which has been in effect for about two years, wouldn't have a shred of credibility if Stern had just given Crawford a warning. This wasn't the first time Crawford had run amok. He was already working under a zero-tolerance warning after a technical-foul assessing spree in a playoff game four years ago.
But not many of us saw this coming. Stern suspended Crawford indefinitely, which is a stunner.
Stern said that Crawford didn't particularly think he'd done anything wrong, and might decide on his own to be done with officiating NBA games for good -- which is another stunner.
Crawford isn't just another zebra. He's probably the most well-known NBA referee among basketball fans, the son of famous former baseball umpire Shag Crawford and the brother of current MLB umpire Jerry Crawford. The Crawfords are America's first family of officiating. And Joey isn't just good at officiating basketball games; he might be the best. He's been reffing NBA games for 30 years and has worked every NBA Finals since 1986.
But Sunday in Dallas, Crawford crossed the line with Duncan. Don't get me wrong, Duncan isn't innocent. He seems almost devoid of personality, but he's a whiner, plain and simple. Even so, "Do you want to fight?" isn't the response you want from a referee during a game. Duncan then said something completely benign to Crawford in protest of a foul call to earn one technical, and while on the bench was laughing visibly a few minutes later. Crawford hit Duncan with a second technical, which calls for automatic ejection.
Duncan's offense?
The laughter. ABC's microphones caught Crawford telling Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich that Duncan's unpardonable sin was laughing at him. You could read Crawford's lips as he said the words "making a mockery." Duncan, incredulous, left the floor and uttered a profanity, which earned him a $25,000 fine. The episode isn't subject to interpretation because it was captured on camera from multiple angles. Crawford was making the case that Duncan's belly-laughing was an attempt to show up the referees. But Stern indicated that that excuse would not fly, that this had nothing to do with enforcing the early-season point of emphasis to assess technicals to players who slam the ball on the floor or run the other way pulling their jerseys over the heads.
And there's something perhaps more bothersome, depending on how cynical you are.
By throwing Duncan out for no good reason, Crawford, no matter how unintentionally, gave Dallas an advantage the rest of the game. The Mavericks, with the No. 1 overall seed already wrapped up, had planned to play their starters only half the game. The Spurs were still fighting Phoenix for the No. 2 seed and home-court advantage in the second round of the playoffs, and a win against Dallas would have forced the Suns to win in Houston and perhaps beat the Clippers, too.
Without Duncan, the Spurs lost the game and a chance at the No. 2 seed.
This matters because the NBA -- unlike MLB, the NFL and the NHL -- constantly and with great resentment fights the perception that some larger force (uh, the referees, league office and network partners) tries to influence the outcome to get favorable playoff matchups. Already, people in basketball circles have been openly rooting for a Suns-Mavericks Western Conference finals because those teams have played the most entertaining basketball the NBA has seen in the past two years.
The Mavericks are almost a lock to get that far. The Suns, however, would have to go through the Spurs, a three-time champion with star players widely perceived as utterly boring on and off the court.
So now, if the Spurs and Suns are forced to a Game 7 to see which team advances to the conference final to play Dallas, guess where the game will be played?
Phoenix.
The conspiracy theorists were already at work before Duncan could get from the bench to the locker room after being tossed.
I covered the game for ABC and as soon as I finished listening to Duncan in the locker room and turned my cellphone on, I had four voice mail or text messages suggesting the usual. Two were from recently retired NBA players who quickly noted Crawford's role in helping ensure the Suns home-court advantage. Yes, NBA players talk about "conspiracies" all the time, about who prefers what matchups and why. It's a constant part of the postseason chatter, though nobody ever produces a speck of evidence that would support these allegations. And of all the referees in the league, Joey Crawford (because of his perceived toughness and independence) would be about the last name involved in such chatter.
But the appearance of impropriety can be damning.
And while Stern didn't address that yesterday and probably won't in any on-the-record discussion, it's one of several reasons why he had to do something decisive.
Stern has proven to be quite the sheriff over the last couple of years, some would say unnecessarily so. I would say necessarily so (this is consistent), whether we're talking about the dress code for players or the crackdown on on-court whining. The NBA, in fighting for its slice of the sports and entertainment pie, had better make sure its product is seen as a compe ion and not exhibition subject to any degree of interference or predetermination. Crawford's suspension doesn't need to be forever but he certainly needs to demonstrate he understands that challenging a player to a fight, then throwing him out of a game for laughing, is reason for him to be chased from the court as well.
God it's little media article comments like that that piss me off.The Mavericks are almost a lock to get that far. The Suns, however, would have to go through the Spurs, a three-time champion with star players widely perceived as utterly boring on and off the court.
Seeing disciplined basketball is NOT boring, and it's the media that perpetuates that label. Call the Spurs "More Exciting" since the addition of Parker and Manu, and you'll get the dumber sheep marginals to warm up to the Spurs.
There's a lot of consensus that the Spurs ARE exciting to watch. Take your pick, out of the 30 or so teams. There's only about 4 to 6 good teams? And YOU WOULDN'T pick a Spurs game why?? if the Spurs are STILL boring to watch. Then there's about 25 other teams MORE boring. It's a damn self-fulfilling prophecy.
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