Part 5: Punching Out Joey Crawford And the Issues On NBA Officiating

I have to admit, the headline did grab me in a strange and disturbingly pleasing way...



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Canzano: Punching out Joey Crawford, and the issues on NBA officiating



Print John Canzano | JohnCanzano@iCloud.com By John Canzano | JohnCanzano@iCloud.com
on May 16, 2014 at 10:30 AM, updated May 16, 2014 at 12:59 PM


CANZANO IN DEPTH: NBA OFFICIATING
Does the NBA want us to believe in its officials or not?
Part 1: Ex-NBA official Tim Donaghy tuned into Blazers-Rockets
Part 2: NBA says percentage of correct officiating calls 'up in the 80s'
NBA commissioner says expansion of instant replay on table
Part 3: 'Joey Crawford' is trending on Twitter -- why the NBA wishes he weren't
Part 4: Great, now will Adam Silver fix David Stern's officiating problem?
Part 5: Punching out Joey Crawford, and the issues on NBA officiating




PART FIVE: Prior to officiating Game 2 of the Spurs-Blazers Western Conference semifinal playoff series in San Antonio, Joe Crawford arrived in a sport coat at AT&T Center, and took an early lap around the court in street clothes.

Crawford shook hands, and went to the scorer's table, testing the replay communication equipment he'd use later in the evening. He cut a far different figure than that of the scowling, demonstrative, villain-referee.

This Joe Crawford was a guy you'd want to have a beer with. He was smiling. He was friendly -- even funny. And after slapping backs and shaking hands with several of the basketball operations staffers and some old friends, Crawford walked toward me as I stood at the mouth of the arena tunnel.

"I'd love to talk with you," Crawford said. "If the NBA lets me, I'm in to talk about anything and everything. Someone needs to tell our side of the story."

Crawford, 62, then made a joke about the two of us sharing a barber, and disappeared down the tunnel into his dressing room.

This five-part series on NBA officiating has demonstrated that there is very little public accountability for the league's officials. It has documented how a power struggle within an officiating crew can skew the outcome of a game. It has outlined the lack of an effective training system that would help its referees to improve, and become more consistent. The game reports are kept confidential, even from officials. The assigning process is suspect, and the league appears hyper-focused on working to control the conversation about its officials.

Perception is reality. The league remains mired in a referee-image problem that includes a 1998 investigation into the exchange of airline tickets that resulted in charges against 10 NBA officials, including Crawford, for tax evasion. In 2004, the Pacers and Pistons brawled in the "Malice at the Palace," after officials lost control. In 2007, the NBA was rocked by the Tim Donaghy "betting" scandal.

In an effort to restore trust in officiating, then-Commissioner David J. Stern appointed Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson to a new position in charge of creating an integrity system for the league's officials in 2008. He left in the NBA in 2012. In four years and one month on the job, it's unclear what, if anything, Johnson brought to the league besides his rank. Johnson now sits on the Board of Directors of Goodwill Industries.

Further, the league's replay system is problematic in its current form. New commissioner Adam Silver said he's open to expanding the use of replay, allowing officials broader authority to correct their calls in the final minutes of games. But we've learned during this series that NBA officials beat Silver to the punch decades earlier. They've regularly worked outside the NBA rulebook to try to get what they perceive to be a just outcome.

One such case may have occurred Tuesday night in the Clippers-Thunder series.

Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers fumed after his team's meltdown and one-point loss in Game 5 against Oklahoma City. Even as Rivers admits that Clippers' guard Matt Barnes committed a foul with 11 seconds left, no foul was whistled and the ball went out of bounds. The replay supported Rivers' contention that the ball last touched the Thunder's Reggie Jackson. NBA official Tony Brothers said through an Associated Press pool reporter post-game that the replay angles were inconclusive, and the league later reiterated that position. Brothers awarded the Thunder the ball -- either because it's what he had to do, or because it was a make-up for the no-call on the Barnes' foul.

We'll never know which.

Said Rivers: "In my opinion, let's take away replay. Let's take away the replay system. Because that's our ball. We win the game. And we got robbed because of that call. And it's clear. Everybody in the arena saw it. That's why everybody was shocked when they said Oklahoma City ball. Whether it was a foul or not — it was, but they didn't call it."

Rivers was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Thursday for criticism of the officials. That same day the Thunder closed the series out, winning in six games.

Fair or not, fans in NBA arenas this postseason have routinely started chants of, "Ref! You! Suck!" during games. It has become a familiar refrain, one that the league isn't effectively able to combat, even with its stiff post-game statements and fines, as long as it continues to make its referee-review process and its training tactics confidential and inconsistent.

It's a small leap from believing an official honestly missed a call, or worked to create a just outcome with a makeup call, to thinking that referee might have it out for a certain team.

Yet former Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, now a broadcaster with ESPN, believes referee bias exists. Van Gundy said every coach in the league has an official he hates to run into on the court.

"My guy was Eric Lewis," Van Gundy said. "The problem is if you get on the bad side of one of the main guys you are going to see them more and more. It's not an easy thing. Lewis T'eed me up four straight games once. I didn't like the way he refereed size and Yao (Ming) in particular.

"So I come out for the fifth game and I see Eric and I just drop my head. He comes up to me and says, 'You want a technical foul now or when the game starts?"

Van Gundy said, "That humanity, and sense of humor fixed everything. We never had a problem after that, but I always wondered how it might have gone had we never had that laugh. The league tries to tell you that personality conflicts aren't an issue. If I was an official, I'd (expletive) people if they were on my bad side. That's called being human. They're not drones and robots. There's personality conflicts in every walk of life, for them to insist there's not one between Jake O'Donnell and Clyde Drexler, I think that's even worse because they're claiming it's not happening and we can all see it."

Rod Thorn, the NBA's director of operations, oversees the league's officials. He acknowledged that coaches and referees might have personality conflicts, but said, "Anything that's gone on in the past has to stay in the past. Every night is a new night. You've got to be ready mentally and physically. You can't carry things."

Would the NBA avoid assigning an official to a certain team's games if the referee admitted he was unable to give a team a fair shake?

Said Thorn: "If an official ever told me that, it would be hard to keep him."

Since buying the Dallas Mavericks in 2000, owner Mark Cuban has been outspoken about officiating. He's been fined $1.665 million by the league in that span. During the 2006 NBA Finals, Cuban was frustrated after a Game 5 loss to the Heat, and went on the floor to vent to official Joe DeRosa, glaring, too, at Stern in the stands. Earlier that same playoffs Cuban also criticized how the officials are selected for the playoffs.

He was fined $450,000 for those two incidents.

No other major professional sports league is as vigilant as the NBA in assessing fines, and enforcing a long-standing gag order on its officials.

Retired FBI agent Warren Flagg, a 20-year veteran of the bureau, said he consulted with Cuban after that playoff debacle. Flagg now runs his own New York-based investigation and security firm. He looked deep into officiating, as Flagg said, Cuban was considering a lawsuit.

"Cuban asked me what he should do," Flagg said of the 2006 Finals. "I told him, 'Sue and you'll win your case,' but he knew he'd be killing the Golden Goose."

When asked about his discussions with Flagg, Cuban said: "I don't remember."

Flagg was later hired by the Donaghy defense team to run an independent investigation of the league's officiating. He said the NBA's refusal to release its internal investigation during Donaghy's prosecution in 2008 still troubles him.

"They wanted this thing to be closed," Flagg said, "and their story was that Tim was the only bad apple. I've never seen a cooperating witness so hammered and badgered. It was because the NBA was running the thing.

"I would like to see if (the NBA) did what it did a few years earlier when the refs were picked up for selling their first-class airline tickets. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. I'll bet they did. In that case, they (turned the officials against each other using the threat of termination). They said, 'If you want to work, tell us what happened.' If that Donaghy internal investigation ever gets leaked, it's going to be like the performance-enhancing drug investigation in baseball."

A single NBA playoff game generates more than $1 million in revenue in ticket sales alone. That doesn't include television revenue, merchandise, sponsorships, and also, the intangible enthusiasm a longer and more dramatic playoff series generates. For example, Blazers president Chris McGowan was thrilled after Portland won Game 4 of their series with the Spurs on their home court.

"Our fans got another positive experience in a home playoff game," he said, as he left the court. "Game 6 with Damian, and now this." It's McGowan's job to handle the business operation of Trail Blazers, Inc., and winning a playoff game helps him in his quest to sell season tickets and sponsorships.

Van Gundy said he believes there are three teams on the floor for every game --- a home team, a visiting team and a team of officials. He views each as important to the outcome of the game.

The NBA declined to make Crawford available for this piece. But I'd like to ask Crawford if he believes officials get a bad rap. I'd like to ask him if there were times his personal feelings about a team got in the way of his job. I'd like to ask, too, if Crawford and other officials believe the officiating operation should be outsourced to a third party, removing any hint of possible influence from the league office.

Crawford has officiating more postseason games than any active NBA official. I'd like to ask him what he'd do to help restore faith from the public.

Also, I'd like to ask Crawford about an unbelievable story I'd heard repeated several times by former NBA players, officials and witnesses in the course of reporting this series. It involves a meeting that took place between the NBA's 54 officials in 2001 at the Hilton Hotel in New Jersey. The league's referees convened that day to discuss union matters, including a hotly debated long-time standing arrangement the group had to officiate offseason charity games and other paid referee gigs. Seems some of the officials were getting choice paying jobs, including one that included a trip to Florida, while others weren't receiving any extra work.

There was division in the ranks over the preferential treatment.

Crawford gathered half the group in a meeting room at the Hilton, and was trying to get the event started. The rest of the officials, including Donaghy, O'Donnell and Tommy Nunez, Sr., were out in the lobby, talking. A wedding party was gathering in an adjacent ballroom.

According to witnesses, Crawford yelled, "Let's go! Meeting's (expletive) starting!" Donaghy ignored him, pretending not to hear. Crawford again raised his voice, and again Donaghy pretended not to hear him.

"I'll admit," Donaghy said. "I was being a (jerk). Joe and I had been good friends, but we were arguing on this issue. We didn't see eye to eye and we'd had a bad argument on the telephone about it in which one of us hung up."

Crawford apparently had enough of the disrespect. He walked up to Donaghy and slapped him across the face. The left-handed Donaghy took one step back, wound up, and dropped Joe Crawford with a left hook.

Crawford spent the rest of the meeting with a bag of ice on his eye.

"We patched it up later. We apologized to each other," Donaghy said. "But I'll never forget, Tommy Nunez Sr. walks by me with Joe on the ground, doesn't even look at me, and just says, 'I've been waiting 20 years for somebody to knock him on his ass."



bob



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Great story!