Joey Crawford can suck my ass

Vulgar, I know. And I don't give a shit.

I also don't accuse refs of winning or losing games. Blaming referees is the deus ex machina of stupid sports fans. I never do it, and I rarely bitch about them. And if you don't believe me, again, I don't give a shit.

But I'm going to bitch about them now. Joey Crawford in particular.

First, a little clarification of my argument. In the NBA, there are two people that get the spoils: the aggressor and the superstar. The Mavericks lost in the NBA Finals three years ago not because they got shafted by the refs, but because the Heat (Dwyane Wade in particular) were the aggressors for the last three and a half games of that series. If you sit back and play like a pussy, you're not going to get calls. That's just how it is. The superstars also get the calls, because the NBA is as star-driven as any league gets. Kobe Bryant is going to get whistles in crunch time that Patrick O'Bryant is not. And it's been that way for a couple decades now, so teams have to adjust. It rarely fluctuates.

Not rarely enough.

On Tuesday night, Joey Crawford made an awful call against LeBron James, a call that resulted in the winning point being scored by the Pacers. It was atrocious. Preposterous. Possibly nefarious. In simple terms, it was the worst call I've ever seen against a Cleveland Cavalier. Yeah, that bad.

I'm not sure how long the highlight video will be on the net, so watch it here as soon as possible. The play is an inbound alley-oop intended for Danny Granger with 0.2 seconds left, and LeBron clearly has position on Granger and knocks the ball away. It's an under-thrown pass that both players are going for, and if anything, Granger is guilty of an over-the-back.

Not in Crawford's eyes. Crawford has never been afraid to rub the game's best coaches and players the wrong way, and he certainly did that tonight. His whistle sent Granger to the line, and to Granger's credit, he won the game with a clutch free throw.

Problem is, he shouldn't have been taking those fucking free throws in the first place. Mike Brown speculated that that Crawford's decision was a make-up call for what he felt was a bad call by Bennie Adams immediately beforehand. That call, also viewable in the highlight above, was made against Granger on a similar alley-oop attempt to LeBron, who made the game-tying free throws because of it. But Granger was clearly face guarding LeBron on the play, and there was a considerable bump at the hip.

It was the definition of a call that could go either way, and like I said before, when a call can go either way, it almost always goes to the superstar. Granger is an All-Star and great young talent, but he's not LeBron, especially on a night when James blows up for 47 points on 71 percent shooting and Granger scores 16 points at a 28 percent clip.

What does it all mean? Well, if the foul hadn't been called on LeBron, the game would have gone to overtime, and I'm not going to sit here and tell you for sure that the Cavs would have won. This was just one of those hard-fought division games that shouldn't be decided on bullshit whistles in favor of second-tier stars.

The reactions of LeBron James and Mike Brown tell the story, too. LeBron is visibly dispondent after the play. Most of the time, he barks at the referees like a pitbull until he gets what he wants. This time, he just sat there in disbelief.

Brown was not so quiet. He called it "the worst call that I have ever been a part of" and admitted he didn't care if he got fined for griping. "This isn't me. I never do this." We know, coach.

To top it off, that call ripped away the distinction that pleased me most about the Cavs this season. Sure, the 12-game unholy destruction streak was awesome and the home record is hotter than Lucy Pinder. But for the first time all season, we lost back-to-back games. That speaks to this team's resiliency.

LeBron didn't get much help tonight, and we ended up shooting 14 more free throws than Indiana, so I'm not going to blame the refs for the outcome. It was just one bad call made at the single most inopportune time.

For that, Joey Crawford can suck my ass.