Chris Paul opened up a can of worms after a loss on Thursday against the Cleveland Cavaliers when he decided to explain in detail why he had an issue with referee Lauren Holtkamp, a new full-time female referee in the NBA this season.
Holtkamp is the only other full-time female referee in the league alongside Violet Palmer, so she’s in a pretty exclusive group. Any time you address someone like that publicly, especially in a negative light, it’s going to cause some controversy. Paul’s comments about her certainly did just that. Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles has details:
“I think we have to show better composure, but at the same time some of [the technical fouls] were ridiculous,” Paul said. “The tech that I get right there was ridiculous. I don’t care what nobody says, I don’t care what she says; that’s terrible. There’s no way that can be a tech. We try to get the ball out fast every time down the court, and when we did that, she said, ‘Uh-uh.’ I said, ‘Why, uh-uh?’ And she gave me a tech.
“That’s ridiculous. If that’s the case, this might not be for her.”
Paul, who also is head of the National Basketball Players Association, and several other Clippers players said after postgame interviews that their displeasure had nothing to do with Holtkamp’s gender and everything to do with the calls she made on the court. The Clippers were unhappy with her calls in Thursday night’s game and calls she made in a previous game against the Miami Heat.
First of all, Paul has a good reason to complain here. It’s usually the opposing players who sometimes hold the ball away from an offensive player during a dead-ball situation to make sure nothing gets started – usually while they’re complaining about something to a referee. The referee’s job is to let the game run the way it’s supposed to, so Holtkamp disallowing Paul from trying to run his offense is clearly not okay, and it’s especially not okay if she gave him a tech just for asking why she wouldn’t let him have the ball when he was supposed to have it.
That, of course, is only Paul’s side of the story. There’s two sides to every story and Holtkamp surely had her own reasons for her actions. That said, the Clippers have picked up nine technicals in the last two games she has called. Nine. There’s clearly a sense of particular dislike between her and the Clippers, and that’s never a good thing when things appear to be more on a personal level than a professional one.
Where Paul messed up is when he said “this might not be for her”. The biggest reason this is a bigger story than it normally would be is the fact that Holtkamp is a female referee, and there is no way to sugarcoat that. Would Paul have said such a thing if he was talking about any other referee in the league? This certainly can’t be the first time a referee has made a ridiculous call against him or his team, and he’s never openly questioned whether a particular referee is in the right field of work because of a few questionable calls. That’s a serious attack on someone’s profession, and the fact that Paul did so against a female referee is a bad insinuation on his part whether he meant to take it in that direction or not.
To be fair to Paul, he wasn’t the only one complaining about Holtkamp after the game. Markazi has more on that:
Holtkamp also gave DeAndre Jordan a technical foul with 9:30 left in the third quarter after screaming for a foul following a dunk.
“I guess she thought I was talking to her,” Jordan said. “We talked about it. She said that she thought I was talking to her. She made a call and I talked to the other refs and they disagreed with it. Hopefully it will be rescinded. We’ll see.”
Matt Barnes was ejected in the third quarter for arguing a call after picking up his first technical for defending Kevin Love after the whistle earlier in the third quarter.
“The first one I’m guarding someone who outweighs me by 40 pounds and he makes a spin move and I slap down on the ball so he doesn’t get an and-1 and he held my arm and I tried to pull my arm back and I get a T,” Barnes said. “The second one when they called Jamal [Crawford] for running into LeBron [James]. I said, ‘Just don’t give them the game,’ and they kicked me out.”
These were typical and regular complaints players make all the time about referees – especially Barnes – so it’s nothing new. What Paul did in his interview was bad, though. It would be equivalent to DeAndre Jordan questioning whether she’s in the right profession because it’s ridiculous for her to give him a tech when she didn’t even know who he was talking to. Who says that? It’s just not something players or Paul would normally do if a male referee had made those calls they so disliked.
Whether he means it or not, Paul should send an apology to Holtkamp for this particular blunder because he is in the wrong.
OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE:
Amare Stoudemire is starting to wonder whether he should find a way to move on from the New York Knicks this season, from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports: “Amar’e Stoudemire plans to use the All-Star break to decide whether to ask the New York Knicks for a contract buyout that could free him to potentially sign with a playoff contender. “It’s not an easy decision to make,” Stoudemire told Yahoo Sports. “Over time, we will see how things pan out. You give yourself a break during the All-Star break. You think about it with your family. …That will give me a good solid week on how to weigh out the rest of the season.”… “All possibilities at this point are still open,” Stoudemire said of a possible buyout. “The door is still open for that. But at the same time, I am with the Knicks now. I got to stay optimistic about things and what we are doing here. I can’t really focus on the future because it’s not here.”
Not surprisingly, Jacque Vaughn has been fired as the head coach of the Orlando Magic. The Magic do have someone particular in mind to replace Vaughn, from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: “The Orlando Magic have fired coach Jacque Vaughn. Vaughn, 39, was informed of the decision on Thursday in Orlando, ending his tenure less than three years after his hiring. The Magic are 15-37 this season. The players were informed at a meeting at 1 p.m. EST. Assistant coach James Borrego will become the interim head coach. Scott Skiles, a popular ex-Orlando Magic player and former head coach with Phoenix, Chicago and Milwaukee, has emerged as a serious candidate to eventually take over as head coach, league sources told Yahoo Sports.”
- The NBA announced that the following players will participate in the 3-point contest at All-Star weekend: Stephen Curry, James Harden, Klay Thompson, Kyle Korver, Wesley Matthews, Kyrie Irving, J.J. Redick and Marco Belinelli. Can you think of a more electric group for this contest than that?
Carmelo Anthony hopes to play the role of a recruiter during All-Star weekend, from Peter Botte of Daily News: “Carmelo Anthony will use the NBA All-Star Game weekend as a chance to sell future free agents on joining him with the New York Knicks. “I hope so. I hope so,” Anthony said after practice ahead of Friday’s game in Brooklyn. “For the most part I think guys pretty much know New York. Especially the guys like veteran guys who have been in the league for a long time that come in and out of New York. “People come here in the summer time, in the offseason, they spend time here. When they come to play, they spend time being out and about and just experiencing different things. I am pretty sure people already know New York. It is just a matter of kind of knowing and learning the Knicks organization at that point in time.”
Check out what DeMarcus Cousins had to say after getting blown out by the Nowitzki-less Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, from James Ham of Cowbell Kingdom: “Just pride. Just have some self respect. Act like you care. That’s what it’s coming down to. We’re the same team. The same team that everyone was praising at the beginning of the year – it’s the same team.” “Absolutely.” DeMarcus Cousins on if this is the most frustrated he’s been in his 5 years in Sacramento. “Keep leading by example. That’s all I can do. My body language has been bad as well. I need to straighten it out myself. But to just come out and lay down like we did tonight is unacceptable. I can’t…no.” DeMarcus Cousins refused to use the December coaching change as an excuse. “We’re not going there!” Cousins should perhaps look himself in the mirror when he says some of those things.
Jim Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
… or just maybe Chris Paul is correct, and she isn’t ready for the NBA. He still has to be fined though, but it might be worth the fine if they evaluate her more closely, and send her packing if she isn’t up to standards for when a Technical foul should be called.
There has only been 1 female ref in all these years of the Politically Correct NBA trying to get more women. The other ref they had, didn’t last very long. The feeling among myself, and probably many players, is that they might be lowering standards (i.e. less experience) to allow more women refs into the NBA. The NBA might have been under pressure from Feminist groups and this referee might have been the outcome of the pressure. Maybe she can hone her Technical Fouls skills in the D-League.
There are already too many PC police to worry about. And if this was a male Rookie coach, he too would have been criticized by players, but without the remark of him not belonging in the NBA – since the standards for male refs is assumed to be very high. I’m sure all rookie refs are heavily evaluated during the year. The problem is whether they have the courage to fire or demote another woman, who doesn’t meet the high standards?