Before we even discuss last night's incident, how is it the NBA placed Joey Crawford on duty to call a very important game with the San Antonio Spurs involved?
Believe me, I'll take a Spurs loss anyway I can get one, but based on the numerous past incidents with Crawford and the Spurs, Tim Duncan in particular, he should never call a San Antonio playoff game. There are plenty of other lousy officials out there to take his place.
Last night near the end of the 1st quarter, several Hornets and Spurs kept switching up their spots on the block. This happens now and then with a little cat and mouse shifting. What Crawford should have done was walk into the lane and stop the movement. Instead, he called a technical delay of game on both teams.
Popovich wasn't pleased, for what he thought was a bad misinterpretation of the rules:
“I believe the official was incorrect. We’ve gone through this before a couple of years ago in our Sacramento series, and it happened to be with Bonzi (Wells). The team that’s shooting the free throw has to make the first choice about where they’re gong to be placed. So the delay of game should be on that team, not on both.”At the time he didn't have a similarly calm explanation. Instead Pops and Crawford were angrily discussing the call and like a typical NBA official who wants to be bigger than the game, he poked the Spurs coach in the chest a few times and was clearly the aggressor in an argument that didn't need to happen.
Joey Crawford is everything that's wrong with the NBA officials. They think they are part of the game, the entertainment. Their egos are far too large to perform their duties appropriately and have trouble admitting to in-game mistakes and take it out the players and coaches. That's not basketball.
I was hoping Coach Pops was going to ask Joey "if he wanted to fight." You know Tim Duncan would have approved.
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