NBA Referees, New Zero Tolerance Rule Getting Ridiculous

Tim Duncan got ejected today, for laughing. From the bench. Laughing from the bench people. Not raising his arms, not yelling, but laughing. This is getting ridiculous and the Zero tolerance policy either needs to work properly and fairly, or it should be gone.

I'm not a Tim Duncan fan. Actually I hate the Spurs, but I watched the "altercation" and this is what happened.

Jason Terry is fouled, shots his free throw nd misses. Joey Crawford blows his whistle after what looks like a bit of bumping between Bowen and Stackhouse on the rebound (which was nothing, just rebounding) but the whistle was not for the bumping, it was for Duncan. Its hard to see if Duncan said anything, but he made no gestures with his body while sitting on that bench, and was looking away from Crawford. Crawford was on the baseline, Tim looked towards the scorers bench/coach Popovich directly before the call, and he gets T'd up. He smiles and laughs it off on the bench like most players d when they get T'd (except most are on the court I guess).

So I guess he was looking towards his coach, making no gestures and yeling obscenities worthy of a technical that were intended for Joey Crawford. Okay...

About 2 minutes later, Josh Howard drives in and slighly hits Fabricio Oberto, but there was no foul, that was obvious. No foul on either player, just slight contact. Duncan has his head rested on his hand, on the bench and the whistle blows. I thought "That was no foul" talking bout the Howard/Oberto contact and next thing I know Crawford ejects Duncan. Duncan laughs about the call Joey Crawford made, which should of been a no call. Joey runs over to him and gives him a T, and he is ejected. Duncan looks amazed and looks around at his teammates and coach, and is then escorted of the court.

The second T I can barely live with. The first T was absolute bullshit.

This Zero Tolerance rule has to have some sort of consistancy or it should be gone in my opinion.

Yeah pretty ridiculous, i was watching that game. Tim started to laugh after Joey called a foul and there was a whistle and i saw someone escorting Timmy out. I didnt understand it, pretty lame.

Joe Crawford is a prick, and it's pretty well known. I can't wait for David Stern to find a way to defend him though.

Everyone pretty much hates Crawford......as far as zero tolerance, if that was ACTUALLY implemented then Duncan, Nash, and Kobe would have more T's then Rasheed.

ESPN was quoting Duncan, who said that Crawford asked Duncan if he wanted to fight.. what the hell is with this?

It was totally absurd, Duncan wasn't doing anything..

LMAO wait Crawford asked Duncan if he wanted to fight him??!

Yeah, I watched that game too. As ecstatic I was that Duncan was removed from the game (and his Spurs, my least-favorite team lost due to it), I thught it was bullshit. The first T didn't and the second T... wow, that was a shock and made no sense.

Also, the Howard/Oberto foul should've been on Howard. Taking lessons from Ginobili, he intentionally ricocheted off of him for no reason.

As great as it is to have bad calls on my team's side for once, WTF

"He looked at me and said, 'Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?"' Duncan said. "If he wants to fight, we can fight. I don't have any problem with him, but we can do it if he wants to. I have no reason why in the middle of a game he would yell at me, 'Do you want to fight?"'

Haha @ "we can do it if he wants to"
Please god, let him want to.

Haha @ "we can do it if he wants to"
Please god, let him want to.

Yeah, and make it an All-star event! Like the Charles Barkley vs Dick Bavetta race!

That's funny stuff.

Because we know what a hot-headed young troublemaker Tim Duncan is.
And those Kobe follow through ejections, wtf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGeNWwBN5bQ

all duncan was doing was laughing... wow that's kind of ridiculous.. what happen to duncan's superstar treatment?

what a prick

Didn't like the call at all...i heard Duncan was going to get fined for the comments though, which is also bullshit.

Isn't there enough evidence at this point to suggest that Joey Crawford and Steve Javie are bored with calling games and randomly try to draw attention to themselves every once in a while? I find this storyline incredibly boring.

The first technical might not be too bad, because as I was watching the game, the commentators mentioned that Duncan was saying something (about Crawford?) right before the foul. It doesn't seem like something he would do, but if it's true, then it would justify a T going by the new Zero Tolerance policy.
The second technical was just ridiculous though. Laughable, yet very sad.


(The foul call right after as the play resumed was a bad one as well)

Isn't there enough evidence at this point to suggest that Joey Crawford and Steve Javie are bored with calling games and randomly try to draw attention to themselves every once in a while? I find this storyline incredibly boring.

Someone should tell these refs that fans don't come to see them - what B.S. Herr Stern and his flunkie Private Jackson are quick to punish players & coaches who flame refs. What about refs on a power trip? Sh!t works both ways, IMO.

Another thing that pisses me off is that Iv been looking on NBA.com and i havent seen anything, anywhere on the front page about Tim Duncan getting ejected and what a bullshit call it was. Or anything about Joey, do they not really care or what?

Do you think they want controversy on their front page?

No... but ESPN has it

Maybe Duncan scored with Crawford's wife or daughter.

That ejection was bullshit. Robert Horry was laughing his ass off right with Duncan, and nothing happened to him. Funny thing was, Horry started laughing harder when Duncan got ejected

They were all laughing. And the look on Duncan's face after he's ejected is priceless.

It was bullshit though, I wish the league could fine the refs.

Robert Horry is a legend. I love the man.

I can't wait to see how Duncan is going to handle this. I always liked Duncan, he's very cool/calm, not too emotional yet always in charge.

It'd be nice to see him turn it on so to speak.

Lmao i doubt Crawford ment he wanted to fight Duncan more verbally than physically Cuz quite frankly Crawford wouldnt stand a chance. Although Timmy dosent look like much of a fighter either. Stern should lookover this and fine or suspend Crawford or something sheesh. I need justice!