I am enraged with the NBA! Well okay not with the entire NBA and actually maybe just with a single particular referee and many of you should know exactly who I am talking about. So it’s Sunday afternoon and I am taking a few hours out of my day to spend relaxing and enjoying a good basketball game. My San Antonio Spurs were taking on that team from Dallas, their name constantly slips my mind. Anyway the game was going well. Both teams had brought their “A” games and I was quite glad I had chosen to watch the game.

Then the third quarter came along. About halfway through the quarter Tim Duncan gets called for pushing off a Dallas player. Tim proceeds to stare blankly and bewildered, as he so often does, at NBA referee Joey Crawford for making the call, soon after Pop takes Tim out of the game. It is while Tim is sitting on the bench that he is hit with a T from Crawford. Okay so this is not exactly “normal” and maybe I don’t really agree with the call but if Tim is mouthing off to Crawford, Crawford has the power to make the call and should. No one, not even Tim Duncan, is above the rules of the game.

But minutes later Crawford takes the power his job grants him and crosses a line. After a foul is called on Fabricio Oberto Tim is seen clapping his hands and laughing WHILE SITTING ON THE BENCH! Chances are he is mocking the call just made, something Tim has been caught doing in the past. However this does not justify Joey Crawford’s next move. He proceeds to T up Tim once again and eject him from the game.

The Spurs had a great momentum going on the court up until this point and now suddenly everyone is distracted by what is going on with Tim Duncan OFF THE COURT! I am not condoning Tim’s behavior. I think it was quite childish of him to mock the refs but at the same time I, as not only a Spurs fan but as an NBA fan, hate the thought of a ref determining the outcome of a game between two of the best teams the league has to offer. Heck even if I was a Dallas fan I would be upset. What kind of victory was that to have anyway? They had to play ALL of their stars for well over 26 MINUTES to pull off a win when the Spurs had lost their star player. (By the way AJ, sparing your “star” players in a game that “doesn’t matter anyway” is done the way Pop proceeded to in Monday’s game against the Grizzlies…just a pointer for the future.) There is no way to tell what might have been the outcome of the game had Joey not had it out for Tim.

Joey Crawford had no business making the second call. First of all he didn’t know what Tim was laughing at and in all actuality had no proof that Tim was in fact mocking the call. Secondly Crawford is an NBA official and has been regarded as one of the best. His eyes and focus should not have been on Tim Duncan sitting on the sideline but rather on the game as it unfolded. The personal vendetta he was choosing to take out against Tim Duncan needed to be left in his hotel room. The only rivalry fans cared to see on Sunday was between the two teams on the court.

Players this season were told that the league would be cracking down fouls and the way the game was being called. This also meant that refs would be calling more technical fouls and not allowing players to run their mouths, at least not in excess. However now it seems that the refs are in some dire need of guidelines to follow of their own. It is just plain ludicrous for a referee to think that he can eject a player from a game because he feels “butt-hurt.” Grow up Joey Crawford. Call the game and move on.

Crawford had plenty of other options than calling either one of the technical fouls. He could have done what many other refs do and asked Pop to tell Tim to calm down. The technicals were rash and just plain unnecessary. However this is not the first time Crawford has been in such a situation. On this point Dallas and San Antonio fans should come to an agreement since it was Crawford who tossed both head coach Don Nelson and his assistant coach out of game 2 during the West Conference finals in 2003. (Once again a Spurs and Dallas match up). Nick Van Exel stated, after that game, that Crawford told him before tip-off not to mess with him, that he was a “bad man.” He was reprimanded privately by the league for this incident. If Tim’s accusations that Crawford asked Tim if he wanted to “fight” during Sunday’s game are correct then this time the league needs to handle the situation publicly. Oh yeah and on a side-note it should be mentioned that Crawford has been to rehab for anger management!

As of now (Monday) the league has taken no action against either party. The league definitely needs to take some action here. I am not saying that Tim shouldn’t be fined or anything for his comments after the game but I also think Crawford should also be punished. If he isn’t then there is only one conclusion I can come to: if Tim Duncan can get tossed from a game for LAUGHING ON THE BENCH…then how soon can Mark Cuban and his mouth get ejected?