Marc Davis
 

I watched the video of the Marc Davis technical foul with 1:25 left in the second quarter. It was not for something on the other side of the court. If the technical foul was just for giving a high five to Blake Griffin, Davis can not be allowed to officiate another game during the rest of the playoffs. It is one thing to miss a lane violation, but something of this apparent magnitude is unacceptable. In addition, If I were Stern (who has enough problems himself), I would tell Stu Jackson and Don Vaden if any other officials pull a stunt like this during the rest of the playoffs, that they both would be held accountable and risk losing their jobs. It is bad enough that the sport has credibility issues, the Commissioner himself has credibility issues, this puts the whole sport in ill repute if the technical foul were for just giving a high five.

Reggie Evans may have received a technical foul for giving Blake Griffin a high-five (VIDEO) | Ball Don't Lie - Yahoo! Sports

Should he be DQ'd for the rest of the playoffs? Hell no.

Even if the League doesn't like his reasoning for the T, at worst, depending on his reasoning, should just get a IC for his grade. This doesn't even raise to the level of the incident between Joe Crawford and Tim Duncan (which was the last time, I can remember in recent history, that a NBA Finals officials got suspended for any real length of time). They'll rescinde the T (he'll maybe get a one game suspension at very worst IMO) if it's warranted and life will move on...there will be no credibility issues from this "incident." Nothing that would be made any worst or any better from listening to your reasoning.

I watched the ESPN replay of the game action for about ninety seconds leading to the technical and saw nothing unusual. The only other thing I can conjecture is maybe Davis thought Evans was taunting the Memphis player by celebrating.

I wasn't sure what Marc Davis gave the T for...but this isn't (at least IMO) something that's enough to suspend an official for for the rest of the playoffs like you suggested.

If IC calls could be graded from 1 to 5, this would be a 5. But that is all.

Davis might have heard something. Vinnie Del Negro did not say anything, which is telling to me. Something must have been said and was overheard.

Peace

I disagree, there was an official much closer than Davis.

Throwing bows to the head???
 

Maybe the left elbow contacting the head of the defender....maybe....delayed/slow reaction to this contact above the shoulders. Hard to defend this one...especially from this angle.

They use to say about boxing, when people cared about the sport, 'Another black eye for boxing.' You can use that phrase for the NBA these days.

Or as Chris Russo famously says about the NBA, 'Typical NBA!'.

I'm not sure why you're throwing a fellow official under the bus, but I find it troubling to say the least. We all make bad calls, no official is perfect, if the T was not warranted, I'm sure he is as mad at himself as any clippers fan.

If ONE call changes the way you feel about the NBA you aren't a NBA fan. You also have a deranged view of basketball and officiating. The NBA is viewed by many people as the top tier basketball with NCAA being at that level too. The officials are expected to match that level. 99.9% of the time they meet that standard.

There is controversy in NCAA basketball about pay to play, officials' schedules, officials' pay, and even missed calls. I can remember two occasions that a team had the misfortune of a bad call and at least one was in an end of the year tournament. Two years ago a crew missed a travel and an out of bounds at the end of a game. Last year a team had to play against 6 players, as I believe they were trying to defend a last second shot. Each crew was disciplined and life went on. How should these calls make me feel they tarnished the NCAA?

You sound like a fanboy and don't understand officiating. If you aren't a clippers fan and just commenting on one bad call, then you are worse than any fan that thinks he/she is your clinician for the night.

What are you disagreeing with? I simply said that Marc Davis might have heard something. No one hear knows what was said, heard or not heard by anyone. Being closer does not mean you will hear someone close to you all the time.

Peace

Having seen the play once (on the video posted in the OP), my guess would be that Marc Davis was holding his whistle for a period of time and assessed the T for a prior action/comment.

Of course, context is everything when it comes to officiating.

Hold The Whistle ...
 

That was my initial thought, but the technical was charged to a player on the offense. I could understand "lag time" for a technical foul to be charged to a player on the defense, but that was not the case here.

10.4.1 SITUATION F: A1 is driving toward the basket for an apparent goal when
the official, while trailing the play advancing in the direction in which the ball is
being advanced, is cursed by the head coach or bench personnel of Team B. How
should the official handle this situation? RULING: The official shall withhold blowing
the whistle until A1 has either made or missed the shot. The official shall then
sound the whistle and assess the Team B head coach or bench personnel with a
technical foul. If the official judges the act to be flagrant, the offender shall be
ejected. If A’s coach or bench personnel was the offender, the whistle shall be
sounded immediately when the unsporting act occurs. (10-4-1a)

I don't mind missing an eight second call, a common foul, an away from the play foul as that is common to the game. This was not common to the game. Thirty years ago, this would have happened and no one would notice. Today everyone is held accountable by the mass media we have and Marc Davis is no exception. You can't have bizarre calls like this taking away from the most important time of the year for the NBA.

No one is saying that Davis should not be held accountable. But when people say that someone in officiating needs to be held accountable, that always cracks me up because this is not about you or me. He is accountable to his bosses and that is all that matters. Not that I am on that level, but I gave a T this year that was in dispute and the only people I had to answer to was the state and my assignor if he choose to say a word to me about the situation.

The media does not need to know the inner workings of what an employer was saying to an employee as they don't do that with the teams either. If a team has an issue, they work it mostly internally and then we might hear or see the results. If Davis did something wrong in this case he would be dealt with mostly privately. And if you do not see him any more, then you can draw some conclusions, but that does not mean those conclusions that you make are accurate either. For all we know Davis might have worked as far as he was going to work for all kinds of reasons. Maybe he did not grade out high enough during the regular season? Accountability does not mean that someone has to be accountable to you about anything.

Peace