When talking about NBA basketball you rarely get into match ups between referees and players. But this is exactly what has happened late this season. NBA commissioner David Stern has suspended veteran referee Joey Crawford for the remainder of the season. Although Crawford is one of the most experience playoff officials of all time, he will not be available this time around.

So what caused all of this? Duncan, a member of the San Antonio Spurs, was sitting on the bench at the end of a recent game. With one technical already under his belt, another one would mean that he would be kicked out of the game.

Apparently Duncan began to laugh on the bench at which point Crawford called a second technical foul on him. Duncan also said that the referee had a few choice words for him as well. Duncan said, “He looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?”

Obviously, this is something that should never be said to a player by a referee. Crawford was punished by the NBA for improper conduct as well as the comments that he made to Duncan during the course of the game. Even though he is consistently rated as one of the top refs in the game, NBA officials did not have a choice but to suspend him; even with the playoffs closing in.

Duncan was also fined $25,000 for the incident. Crawford claims that he referred to him as a curse word.

All in all, this is a situation that the league could have done without. Especially since the playoffs are right around the corner.

Source: kcsti.com