America at Large:Thirty years later I may be conflating the memory, but I seem to recall that I covered the first NBA game Joey Crawford worked. If not, it was one of the earliest.

He was a 25-year-old rookie referee, and the word quickly spread that he was the son of legendary National League baseball umpire Shag Crawford.

Within a few years his brother Jerry joined the ranks of Major League Baseball umpires, cementing the Crawford Clan's claim as the First Family of American sports officiating.

Even as a youngster, Joey Crawford quickly established himself as one of the best. He had been assigned to work the NBA finals for each of the past 21 seasons, but when the play-offs start this weekend, Joey will be on the bench.

Officially, Crawford was suspended on Tuesday for the balance of the regular season (read: last night's games), as well as the play-offs, for his overzealous (and seemingly personally-motivated) ejection of San Antonio's Tim Duncan in a game in Dallas last Sunday.

I didn't see the clips of the Crawford-Duncan set-to until I watched a newscast later that evening. It appeared to me the referee might have behaved precipitately, but don't they all sometimes? So it was somewhat stunning when, two days later, NBA commissioner David Stern came down with his ruling, a punishment deemed so severe it is virtually an invitation for the now-emasculated Crawford to resign.

Although the 31-year-old Duncan is among the league's premier players, he is regarded as something of a complainer by officials, and Crawford is known to have a short fuse.

In the third period of Sunday's game, with the issue still in doubt, Crawford called a technical foul on Duncan when he griped about a foul the referee had called on the Spurs' Argentinian guard Manu Ginobili.

Moments later, with Duncan now on the bench, Crawford blew the whistle on another of the Spurs' Argentinians, Fabricio Oberto. In response, Duncan laughed out loud and buried his face in a towel.

Crawford hit him with a second technical and threw him out of the game.

On his way to the locker-room, Duncan cursed in expressing his displeasure, a conversation which was picked up by television audio, ensuring he would be fined an additional $25,000 for "orally abusing" an official.

Crawford thereupon reportedly challenged Duncan by asking, "Do you want to fight?"

The referee defended his action by claiming that by laughing at him Duncan was "making a mockery" of the officials.

Was Crawford's behaviour over the top? Perhaps, but Stern's reaction, at least on the surface, appeared to be equally draconian.

"Joey Crawford's handling of this situation failed to meet the standards of professionalism and game management we expect," said the commissioner in a statement announcing the punishment. "Especially in light of similar prior acts by this official, a significant suspension is warranted."

As is so often the case, this may have more to do with perception than reality. Any high-profile sport must guard against the appearance of impropriety, and this wasn't the first time Joey Crawford had crossed the line.

A decade ago, after the NBA officials' contract had guaranteed them first-class airfare on assignments, it became relatively common for referees to exchange their first-class seats for coach tickets and pocket the difference. What might seem to the rest of us a harmless perk was viewed by the Internal Revenue Service as tax evasion, since the zebras neglected to report their windfall as income.

One of at least 10 referees implicated, Crawford pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 1998 and "resigned", a move which proved cosmetic, since he was re-hired before that year's player lockout ended and never missed a day of work.

Whether a man who would cheat on his income tax might also be willing to adjust the score of a game in which he was working did not apparently occur to Stern at the time, but the commissioner did suspend Crawford in 2003 after he called four technical fouls and ejected Dallas coach Don Nelson from Game Two of the Western Conference finals. (That suspension was brief, since Crawford was back on the floor for that year's NBA finals.)

At the time the commissioner warned Crawford a zero-tolerance policy would be in effect. Apparently he overstepped his bounds with Sunday's vendetta against Duncan, a popular player who had been ejected just once before in a nine-year NBA career. (And that one was overturned by the league.)

Nothing in Stern's official decree suggests that Crawford's actions might have influenced the outcome of the game, but it was far from meaningless. The Mavericks and Spurs had already secured play-off spots, but San Antonio were still battling the Phoenix Suns for the number two seeding in the Western Conference.

Duncan's ejection virtually ensured a Dallas victory, which effectively eliminated the Spurs from the runner-up position in the West. While Stern's edict never acknowledged that reality, it probably did not escape the attention of punters.

Whether Joey Crawford works another NBA game or not, there could still be repercussions in the post-season. Duncan may be a fan favourite, but Crawford was positively idolised by his officiating colleagues.

"Tim thinks he had a hard time staying on the court in Athens?" an unnamed team executive told San Antonio columnist Mike Monroe after Crawford had been shown the door. "They'd better make sure Tim doesn't catch a cold, because if he sneezes in one of those refs' direction, he's apt to get a tech."