One of the weirdest things I have ever seen in sports happened on the basketball court over the weekend. Tim Duncan was given not one, but two technicals while sitting on the bench, with the second technical and subsequent ejection simply for laughing.
The story doesn't end there. After the game, Duncan maintained that Joey Crawford, the ref that tossed him, challenged him to a fight during the game. Although Duncan is one of the whinier players in the NBA, he is not one to make up stories like this. Commissioner David Stern must agree because he suspended Crawford for the rest of the season and playoffs Tuesday.
Some might say the punishment was too strict, but I'm not in that camp. It's obvious Crawford has something against Duncan, as he tried to stare him down on multiple occasions Sunday. You cannot give a guy his technical, especially his second, just for enjoying himself on the bench, even if it was at the ref's expense. Crawford has a history of being whistle-happy with the technicals and Stern needed to put an end to that and to Crawford's general need to be front and center at games.
However, this isn't just a problem with Joey Crawford or with NBA referees. Referees in pro and college basketball now feel like it's also their job to entertain fans as if they were Frank Drebben doing the moonwalk near the end of ""Naked Gun."" Theatrics have become a big part of moderating sports games, especially in basketball.
If a player is called for charging, it's not enough just to point to the other side of the court. The ref must take a hop, step and jump before holding his head and jabbing his arm multiple times toward the other side of the court. When a player is called for a foul, the ref feels the need to rush over to the guilty player and nearly punch him in the face to make sure that player knows he is a horrible person for committing such a grievous error.
This would not be much of a problem if the reffing at games was top of the line, but that is not the case. Letting the players play is a revolution of the past. Even in the playoffs or the Big Dance, refs refuse to swallow the whistle. Instead, referees make sure they have a hand in the outcome and entertainment of the game when they really should blend into the background.
At least college refs have an excuse. An article on Foxsports.com, which explained how college referees are often overworked, should have raised more eyebrows than it did, the fact was revealed that college referees are often extremely overworked. One worked 31 straight days at a point during the season, while others would hit seven different states in nine days. As Bob Knight said in the article, ""There's no way officials should work more than three days a week."" Their eyes get heavy, their legs start to ache and they become much less effective when they're working themselves into the ground. The NCAA must get on this issue soon because I've seen far too many games in the last year transformed by the men in black and white.
David Stern needs to straighten out this issue in his league. Hopefully his punishment of Crawford will send a message because we don't need another whistle-happy crew changing the face of the NBA Finals again (I love Dwyane Wade, but the refs were head-over-heels in love with him in last season's finals). With the playoffs upon us, Stern could send a memo to his zebras to swallow the whistle on occasion and things would likely improve.
Perhaps one day robots will be able to perfectly call basketball games, but until that glorious day comes, Stern and the NCAA have to fix the current system before it spirals further out of control.
Zach is a senior majoring in journalsim. E-mail him your comments at Zlkukkonen@dailycardinal.com.
