Mike Brown called it "irresponsible" and "predetermined" and had a lot else to say about Joey Crawford's call at the end of the Cavs loss in Indianapolis Wednesday night (the tape is available here on George Thomas' blog).
"Worst call I've ever been a part of," Brown said.
I watched on TV with the rest of the world, and it wasn't hard to judge: Said call was ridiculous. LeBron James defended an alley oop and did not let Danny Granger get the ball. Two guys fought for the ball, and that was that. Or that should have been that. But referee Joey Crawford called a foul that never should have been called. Go to overtime.
Except … the Pacers were irate that Bennie Adams had called a foul on Granger on an attempted alley-oop to James less than a second earlier. And they should have been irate. That call was bad, too. As Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said after the game, the calls were consistent. As in equally bad.
Brown, though, said that he thought Crawford called the foul on James to make up for the call on Granger. The evidence is strong. And if it's true, it's an official clearly overstepping his bounds and having a direct impact on the game. It's one thing to make a mistake, it's quite another to determine to blow the whistle for a makeup call regardless of what happens on the court. No official should have that kind of power when it comes to a win or loss that can affect who gets home court in the playoffs.
Crawford is consistently ranked as one of the league's best officials, but also is one of the league's most controversial. He was involved in the ejection of Tim Duncan in the 2006-07 season because Crawford thought Duncan was laughing at him. Duncan said Crawford challenged him to a fight on the court, and Crawford was suspended for the rest of the season and for the entire playoffs. The next season Crawford swallowed the whistle in a playoff game, costing the Spurs a win over the Lakers. He also will call technicals at the drop of a hat. In November he ejected Kenyon Martin against the Cavs for extending his elbow into Anderson Varejao's chest — a ridiculous overreaction.
Crawford clearly is not a favorite of the players and coaches in the league, but he doesn't care. He does things his way. He does what he does, and there is no reasoning with him. Mo Williams was asked a few times after the game about what happened, and all he said was: "Joey Crawford."
How the league handles this situation — if it handles it — will be interesting. Because no official should predetermine a call.
One thing we can be sure of is that this will cost Brown a lot of money. A lot of money. But obviously he felt it needed to be said. He completely let go of the "no excuses" mantra he has followed and blasted away at Crawford.
"If they want to fine me for telling the truth, they can fine me for telling the truth," Brown said. "This is not me. I never do this."
All true.
This loss could have huge implications come playoff time. If the Cavs lose the home court because of one loss, there will be much wailing. And it might be justified. But the Cavs also had an entire game to beat the Pacers, and they let it come down to the end. Had they taken care of business earlier, those calls don't matter.
Too, the Cavs have been complaining about non-calls on James for some time now. Brown's tirade followed the loss. There's been the complaining about Mo Williams' All Star status and the league's decision to take away James' triple-double. All the complaints are justified, but the Cavs are dangerously close to getting too obsessed with the external stuff. They are really getting too close to being carried away with officiating concerns. They need to let go and just play. Just play the game.
That's been a strength of theirs for the last couple years, and now that they have a chance to be an elite team they can't lose that persona.
The All Star Game seems to be coming at a good time for this team. It might need a break to get refreshed and re-focused on what matters most — and that's playing the game.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Brown is doing the right thing. If he's going on tirades it can alleviate players' frustration. If he were mute, they'd want to start voicing their anger themselves.
Plus, it works I'll bet. LeBron gets leeway in some areas but he gets mugged in the playoffs.
mike brown had to say something this time. he should have been going off long before this though. ever since lebron's stupid "crab dribble" comment the refs have been gunning for him. as alan said to me a while back, lebron has had his share of calls. those days are over for lebron and the cavs. mike brown needs to take a lesson from phil jackson and learn how to manipulate the refs through the media. welcome to reality coach brown.
joey crawford is terrible. the people who rate him highly are high themselves. let's not forget that joey is a tax cheat who resigned from the nba but commissioner david vince mcmahon stern let him come back. joey's father shag was a respected mlb umpire and son jerry does o.k. for himself there too. the old man but have died with a little shame in his heart for the way joe carries himself on the court and in life.
The league should review the end of the Indiana game. That was just ridiculous. The refs are ganging up on the Cavs, and not only that, stuff like that last play only lends credence to the conspiricy theorists regarding the league favoring some teams over others and manipulating the games to get the big market teams into the playoffs.
LeBron gets fouled 8 out of 10 times he goes to the hoop, as does Z. Z might get even less calls than LeBron within 3 feet of the basket. Every replay of Z trying to lay it up or dunk clearly shows contact on his head, arms etc. It should be embarrassing to the NBA as a whole that the refs are just this terrible.
"But the Cavs also had an entire game to beat the Pacers, and they let it come down to the end. Had they taken care of business earlier, those calls don't matter."
That's it in a nutshell. The Cavs are to blame for letting a sub .400 team hang near the lead ALL game long.
"Too, the Cavs have been complaining about non-calls on James for some time now……..the Cavs are dangerously close to getting too obsessed with the external stuff. They are really getting too close to being carried away with officiating concerns. They need to let go and just play. Just play the game."
I disagree. I think they passed that line several games ago. It seems every time you turn around, one of the Cavs is in an officials face over a non-call.
The Cavs are already distracted. They need to 'just play', but they also need to figure out how to compete with the teams with the big timber in the lane (Lakers, Magic) and how to not let sub .400 teams anywhere NEAR the lead at the end of a game. That alone tells you this team is nowhere near being focused.
Listen, Pat … it was the right call on both ends. I've watched it repeatedly, and it was the right call. Now, you can argue the iffy "if it's under one second there should be no call" unwritten rule, but in that case, Indiana should have won anyway, because James would have never gotten two free throws to tie it up.
I mean, Indiana was missing Jamaal Tinsley, who's been banished forever in a doghouse, plus they were missing Mike Dunleavy, Marquis Daniels and Jeff Foster. All of these guys, if they played for Cleveland, would be in Cleveland's rotation.
So just cut the crap, play the game, and beat the inferior teams. If Brown was going off in the locker room to juice up his boys and openly vocalize his support, then that's OK. That's what a good boss should do. But if he was doing it simply because he felt compelled to shriek like a teenage girl who's just been grounded for a week, then that's not OK.
Everyone who says that the Cavs should never let a game against the Pacers reach the final minute is correct. They shouldn't be in that position.
But aside from that, alan t is simply wrong. The plays were not the same at all. I've watched them over and over also. Granger hooked his arm over LeBron's arm. LeBron was prevented from reaching straight up. Foul, no? On the other end, LeBron was in perfect position, and swatted a short pass. He in now way impeded Granger. I think LBJ's take made sense: maybe the refs swallow the whistle on that first play, in the last second of a game. But you can in no way justify the second. To do so would prevent a player from playing defense.
And I'm all for Mike Brown making public noise about this. It's not like the refs are consistent. There are huge home/road disparities, so I have to believe that working the refs is important. Let's get every call we can.
Actually, he did impede Granger and he bumped him, DinD. Technically, a foul. But what's this debate really about anyway? A lousy team with four guys out. And they lost to them. Brown isn't "working the refs" in this situation, they're not going to get any additional calls because he chooses to whine. If anything, he'll be quietly mocked.
As it now stands, James cries to a ref each and every time a foul isn't called, even when a replay irrefutably shows that nobody touched the dude. If a shot is blocked or a ball is stolen, gee, how could it have happened to The King if he wasn't fouled, it's just not possible!!!
People could play one of those drinking games with all the times that James gets away with a travel and, if yesterday's game was any indication, that Williams gets away with a palm. Players and coaches who whine during and after a game losing to an inferior team just come off as babies.
Just play the game. If they were 10 points down, as a lottery team missing four guys should have been, then we wouldn't even be having this discussion about end of game calls. Simply a bad, bad performance, just like old times with James having to carry a roster on his back. But it happens, even the Lakers lost a home game to Charlotte. Who cares. The playoffs are all that matters.
And as far as your post is concerned, Ed, isn't referring to Ilgauskas' layups and dunks redundant? If you can actually tell the difference between the two, then you should apply for a job with Interpol.
alan t
all you are doing is changing the subject when call lebron a cry baby, say the game should not have come down that last play, etc. your statements might be true, but they have nothing to do with the call in question being bad. no reasonable basketball fan could conclude that lebron fouled granger. it was a jump ball. if anything ford under threw the pass and granger impeded lebron. it was a terrible pass.
however alan t, everyone could have anticipated your position on this issue. much like crawford did on the last foul call, you predetermine all of your views to be against the cleveland side. if this situation was turned around you would say the refs gave the cavs a gift.
Andy, it was a clearly a foul on both ends. And I just got a new reading glasses prescription for my computer, so I know my eyes aren't lying. Cost me $200. Either it's called on both ends or it's not called on both ends. I didn't and don't "predetermine" any view. I thought James got a gift on the first foul. I thought Granger got a gift on the second foul. And the only reason either one of them was a gift is because they usually let that stuff slide in the last second, unless some guy out there is really constipated, hasn't taken a dump in five days, and therefore is compelled to call a completely phantom Scottie Pippen imaginary foul on Hubert Davis. That Davis gift was not a foul. But the two at the end of this Pacers game were.
I mean, this is just dumb. Take just one of those traveling gifts that James gets, or just one of those palming gifts that Williams got, give Indiana two or three points for the turnover, and it wouldn't have even come to an Indiana pass to Granger, because the game would have been over. But needless to say, people in the salmonella peanut gallery would still be writing really dumb stuff about imaginary anti-Cleveland conspiracies.
o.k. alan, if it's a foul at both ends then they should call that foul the whole game. then the game could take about 5 hours to finish.
to me, the cavs deserved the loss. granger's foul was a joke. and then the worst referee in the league–joey crawford–added another page to his autobiography "how to use poor judgment as an nba referee" by compounding the bad call at the other end by calling one of his own. the game was tied!!! as windhorst likes to say, it all evens out. let the game go to o.t. and see what happens there. no need to double up bad calls. a good referee or an umpire will let the game play in the final second unless the foul is egregious. ol' shag is filling his coffin up with post-mortem vomit right now. and any person who doesn't work for david stern knows that joey crawford is a corrupt referee with a fragile ego. the guy had to resign once and was suspended two playoffs ago because he can't handle himself on the floor. stern's nba resembles wrestlemania. i'm surprised arn anderson and ric flair didn't come out to drag lebron away from the floor.
*gives joey crawford a knife edge chop to the chest*
"whooooooooooooooooooo!"
Who the hell is Arn Anderson? I know who Ric Flair is, but that's only because I saw him years ago when Turner used to have wrestling. The last time I saw Flair, his bleach job was way too lemony and his man-boobs were way too saggy. I'm guessing that with the switch to McMahon, he's had to really lift some hard iron and gotten into A-Roid's stash to stay in the limelight this long. That dude must be close to 60 by now.
Its one thing to call a "makeup call" because you blow a call. I hate it but can understand it but the Crawford situation was totally wrong on two counts. First, he was making up for another offical's call. He cannot know what another offical saw. The fact is, Granger totally grabbed LeBron prior to them going up for the alley oop pass. Most of the replays start when they are going up but the foul occured prior to that. Secondly, that call only gave the Cavs a chance to tie and put the game in OT. The alley oop to Granger was a poor pass and was well short which gave Lebron a chance at the ball. There was absolutely no foul. Calling that foul with .01 left on the clock meant the Cavs would have no chance to win the game. If Granger makes just one, the game is over.
I finally got around to watching some replays of the two fouls. Here's the opinion of a high school ref – I actually think LeBron's foul on Granger was more egregious than the first foul. The only disclaimer I can make is I only saw the long shot of each from the high camera over the division line. The floor refs obviously have different views.
Here's the deal regarding the rules, and I'm pretty certain this applies at both the high school and NBA levels. Contact CAN be made when going for a loose ball but a player doesn't have the right to displace another when going for the ball. In other words, you can't 'run through' someone and have it be OK just because you are 'playing the ball'. There's also the concept of 'verticality'. Picture an imaginary cylinder that goes around the defender's torso and extends severl feet above him. A defender in good, in good position, can pretty much have contact with the offensive player without it being a foul as long as he keeps his arms and body within that cylinder. If he jumps, he has to jump straight up – staying within his 'cylinder'. That's verticality.
I didn't see any displacement of LeBron on the first called foul against the Pacers. I also thought the defender did a good job of remaining vertical. It didn't appear like got into LeBron's 'space'. Based on the angle, I wouldn't have called a foul.
On LeBron's foul, he clearly was moving with the player when he jumped. Watch the video closely, and you'll see Granger almost comes to a stop when he leaps for the ball and jumps almost straight up. LeBron is watching the ball and continues his momentum as he leaps – and does two things that IMHO make it a foul. One – he displaces Granger (again, you can't run through someone to get to a loose ball) and two – he does NOT jump vertically. He is clearly jumping outside his 'cylinder' when the contact is made. I, too, would have called that a foul.
Was either contact a hard foul? Of course not. Could they have both been no-calls? Of course they could have been. But from a RULES standpoint, the LeBron-against-Granger foul was actually the easier one to justify.
JMHO
Thank you, DD. A voice of reason.
from a rules standpoint every scramble for a loose ball has about 4 fouls on the play. the only sport that benefits from a strict enforcement of the rules is baseball. it kills football and basketball. basketball referees are the worst in professional sports.