An NBA Whistle-Blower Exposed

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.