When NBA commissioner David Stern suspended veteran referee Joey Crawford indefinitely on Tuesday, he made a necessary statement to fans, players and other officials that referees do not control the outcome of NBA games.
In Sunday’s pivotal match-up between two of the Western Conference’s best teams, the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks, the oft-pugnacious Crawford slapped a technical foul on the Spurs’ Tim Duncan when the star center appealed for a foul. Duncan was sent to the bench with 2:20 left in the third quarter as the Spurs held on to a slim lead over the Mavericks. Barely a minute later, Duncan (and others) laughed at a questionable call made against the Spurs. Embarrassed, tech-happy Crawford turned around and hit Duncan with another, leading to his automatic ejection.
“I didn’t say anything,” Duncan told reporters in the ensuing press conference. “He just looked at me and said, ‘Do you wanna fight?’”
The incident had a serious effect on both Duncan and the Spurs. With their best player out of the game for the entire fourth quarter, the Spurs could not stop a Dallas comeback, and their chance of a second-place finish in the Western Conference was lost.
Commissioner Stern justified his decision by pointing out Crawford’s past record of quick technicals and unwarranted ejections in pivotal situations.
This is an instance where Stern and the NBA got it right. Say what you will about players and player conduct, but at the end of the day it is the athlete that makes the world of sports go round. Fans do not pay money or turn on their televisions to watch referees, they pay to watch the players. Allowing a vendetta-prone ref to hold the power to effect the outcome of games is unacceptable, and this decision will go a long way to insuring that this does not happen.
Some have argued that a suspension was warranted, but not one of this magnitude. These people have to realize that a ref like Crawford, with 31 years of experience and a history of abusing power, will not change his style of officiating for anyone or anything.
“I would throw Duncan out again if he did what he did,” Crawford wrote to a colleague. “I have had a great run and great career, and no one can take that away from me.”
It is clear that Crawford does not expect to be asked back, and if he is, it’s likely that he will be no more than a bitter veteran doing things his own way until the league finally gets fed up. There is no sense waiting until another team is punished by the tyrannical whistle-blower. It’s best for both Crawford and the NBA that he not be asked to don a referee uniform again. Fans everywhere hope to see down-to-the-wire games decided by men like Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, not a bitter, washed-up old man like Crawford.
