"Referee Danny Crawford also had little affection for Mark Cuban and bragged that since 2001, the Mavericks were 1-15 when he worked their playoff games."
Well, tonight, Dallas dropped to 1-16 in games Crawford officiates. It's hard to blame the Mavs' game 3 loss on the officiating, but if Donaghy's words are true, Dan Crawford has no business officiating a Dallas Mavericks' playoff game. And if he's happy tonight, I hope someone catches it on film because that guy needs to be fired.
I can understand why Mark Cuban might rub people the wrong way. He's an annoying fan who just happens to own a team. And I'm sure that kind of person might upset an insecure person like Danny Crawford.
But you cannot bring that kind of grudge to an NBA game. You just can't. And considering that the NBA is the league that can be most affected by the officials, it's embarrassing that he's still allowed to do his job.
The other official tonight was Dick Bavetta, who has a very appropriate first name. Bavetta is the star of Donaghy's book - the man who helped the Lakers get to the NBA Finals over the Sacramento Kings in 2002. The NBA wanted the Lakers in the Finals, and they sent Bavetta in to do their dirty work.
Bavetta and Crawford together on the same court in a pivotal game three against the hated Mavericks? Is the NBA really that brazen and cocky?
You might question Donaghy as a source, but the man has zero reason to lie. He's been disgraced, and no one will ever respect him. Would he lie to sell books? I guess. But you don't see any litigation for slander. You don't hear Crawford or Bavetta fighting any of these claims.
And like Canseco, a lot of the things that Donaghy says make a lot of sense. The NBA is a league of a few chosen teams, and no one else seems to be invited to the party. The league wants the Lakers to be good, they want the Celtics to be good, they want LeBron's team to be good. And they want the Mavericks to lose.
I'm not really sure why the league hates Cuban so much. He's brought them endless amounts of publicity, and even people who hate Cuban are attracted to him. How many other owners in the NBA can you name?
And what sucks is that Cuban is the perfect owner for a city. He's passionate about the game, passionate about the team, and passionate about the fans. He doesn't care about making money, does whatever he can to make the games fun for the fans, and he's made basketball fun for the city of Dallas.
And his team is punished because the league is a bunch of anti-fun old men who lost passion for life a long time ago. And, to me, that's just really sad.
I hope Crawford isn't crooked. But 1-16 isn't a number I can ignore. And it isn't like these Mavericks are choke artists - they're 55-32 in the Dirk era in games not officiated by Dan Crawford.
The problem is that, whenever a big game happens, Crawford is there to happily ruin it for the Mavericks. In the two games that Crawford officiated in the Mavs/Heat series, Dwayne Wade shot 39 free throws.
39. Let that number sink in for a minute.
Tonight, there was a foul disparity in favor of the Spurs. Dan Crawford overruled a foul in the second quarter that ended up causing a four point swing. He also called a questionable charge on Dirk that would've resulted in an "and one" for the Mavericks.
So the league gets their way and the Mavericks lose a key playoff game. And they could still win the series, but there will be another pivotal game that will come up in the playoffs.
And if there's a team that challenges the Lakers or the Cavs, I'm sure that the NBA will send their favorite pets to do the officiating. And I'm sure we'll get a Cavs-Lakers Finals that the NBA truly wants. Because if the league wants something, they'll do whatever it takes to make sure it gets done. Cheating? Of course.
My mom once told me that she was pretty sure the games were rigged. That it always seems like the games go back and forth...one team wins and gets the city excited...then the other team wins. It always seems to be a long series so that people will watch. And in the end, the more popular team seems to win.
I told her she was crazy. It would take too much to rig games like that.
My mom is a pretty smart lady. Maybe she's smarter than I give her credit for.
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