Buck Harvey: Crazy Joey? Battling him more insane
Web Posted: 04/16/2007 10:54 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
Joey Crawford and Tim Duncan have a history, all right.
Crawford worked Game 6 against the Lakers in 2003, when Duncan had one of the finest games of his career.
Crawford and the Mavericks are tight, too. He was the lead ref when Josh Howard called his infamous time-out in Miami; Crawford also had something to do with Dwyane Wade shooting 25 free throws that night.
That’s Crawford, a ref who has been on all sides with his sense of frontier justice. He’s not always right, and Sunday he was wrong. But Crawford is still among the best, and one of Duncan’s mistakes is not realizing that.
Another mistake?
Thinking it’s possible to beat someone such as Crawford by complaining.
The NBA has tried to rein in the rebel refs of the old days, and that’s why Crawford may be suspended or fined. Still, Crawford was also following David Stern’s edict this season. Stern wanted less guff on the court, and Crawford can argue he was simply trying to establish just that.
Stern might have little patience with Crawford because he’s gone through this before. Crawford arrived in San Antonio after a foul-plagued opener in the 2003 Western Conference finals, and he swaggered in looking to install order.
He called four technicals in the first quarter, and among them was an early one against Don Nelson. Nelson stood at midcourt, with arms folded, and he refused to budge after Crawford told Nelson to get back on the bench. Crawford then ejected Nelson, and the Dallas side cried afterward about Crazy Joey’s quick temper.
The opinion in this space the next day dealt with a reputation that Nelson knew too well: “When Joey says shut up, shut up.”
Stern later dressed down Crawford as officials rarely are, and Stern may go further after this incident. But that doesn’t change the analogy. Just as Nelson had asked for trouble, so did Duncan.
Game 3 in Dallas last year likely had something to do with it. With about a minute left then, with the Spurs ahead by a point, Dirk Nowitzki drove. Duncan appeared to be doing his best to back up and get out of Nowitzki’s way. Duncan had five fouls at the time.
Duncan didn’t move fast enough, and Nowitzki’s right foot landed on Duncan’s right foot. Crawford went to the scorer’s table, signaling the foul and the end of the evening for No. 21, with Duncan walking behind in disbelief. Perhaps no one call meant more in that series.
It also underlined a swing in respect for the two stars of these two teams. Nowitzki would attempt more free throws (24) and make more (21) in that game than any in Dallas playoff history.
Maybe that’s when Crawford began to see Duncan as a chronic complainer. Maybe Crawford looks for any sign of that now, and maybe that’s how Duncan got his first technical Sunday.
Whatever Duncan said or didn’t say next, cameras caught an oddly animated Duncan clapping twice after another whistle and laughing wildly. Crawford should have looked the other way.
But Duncan didn’t get that second technical because he enjoys a good chuckle. He was mocking Crawford, and Steve Javie threw out Nick Van Exel last year in the Dallas series for less. As Crawford told Gregg Popovich later, Duncan “knew exactly what he was doing.”
Duncan would later say Crawford asked him if he wanted to “fight,” but this middle-aged man didn’t want to trade punches with a 6-foot-11 power forward. Crawford was asking, as refs of an earlier era did: You want to mess with me?
Duncan messed with Crawford the way fools do with a cop. The basketball equivalent of cuffs followed.
Crawford might have done the Spurs a favor. He made sure their best player didn’t get hurt in a mostly meaningless game.
And Crawford did something else. He reminded Duncan what Popovich has been telling him over the years and what Duncan will need to focus on starting this weekend.
Refs react favorably because of how you play — not because of how much you complain.