Why is Joey Crawford the scapegoat for Kevin Durant?

The Thunder and Grizzlies took part in another fantastic overtime thriller that literally came down to frames of a second, but after the Grizzlies survived Game 5 to take another well deserved victory out of Oklahoma City, most of the postgame chatter has been about Joey Crawford’s latest antics and how the 62-year-old referee ‘iced’ Kevin Durant at the free throw line.

If you missed it, Durant was about to take the second of two free throws to tie the game with 27.5 seconds remaining in overtime, when Crawford noticed the team fouls weren’t properly displayed on a video board, and thus, needed to stop things immediately and berate somebody at the scorer’s table:

Durant missed the second free throw, Mike Fratello mentioned that Crawford “kind of broke the momentum of Durant,” OKC lost by one, their season is on the ropes and Thunder fans and drama seekers now have a story to latch onto.

But it’s all bogus – complete nonsense.

Crawford has a reputation as a power starved, attention craving official, and you can surely find a long list of youtube-able examples. Could he have waited until after the second free throw to make his grand statement? Absolutely. Is it possible that he noticed the error before even giving the ball back to Durant and simply waited until Kevin looked ready to shoot to make more of a spectacle of himself? You can never rule such things out when Crawford is concerned, but none of that should make Crawford a scapegoat for Durant and the Thunder’s failings.

Durant has taken 844 free throws this year between the regular season and playoffs and is one of the best shooters the game has ever seen. Are we to believe that the extra few seconds he had to wait to launch this one made his task any more difficult than the 843 before it? Not to mention, it’s not like he was 843 for 843. Even the best are going to miss from the line sometimes, and in fact, Durant is only shooting 71.8 percent from the line this postseason, bricking 10 other free throws through five games that had nothing to do with Crawford’s behaviour.

Heck, Kris Humphries is a career 68 percent free throw shooter and he sank one last season under similar circumstances, only with a much more animated official.

The real story here isn’t that Joey Crawford somehow psyched out Kevin Durant, it’s that Durant appears to be immune to criticism, especially when there’s an easier target nearby for fans to pin the blame on, like Crawford…or Russell Westbrook.

During a bad shooting night for Westbrook that also turns into a bad night for the Thunder, Twitter timelines are filled with observers lamenting the point guard’s decision making and true value to Oklahoma City. Tuesday night was no different, as Westbrook went 10-of-31 in a crushing Thunder loss. The thing is, Russ also recorded a triple-double in Game 5 and was OKC’s best player for most of the night. Durant went 10-of-24 himself, shot just 3-of-6 from the free throw line, committed six turnovers compared to just two assists and probably could have done better than immediately launching a three-pointer with over two seconds still remaining in overtime.

For the series, while all fingers point to Westbrook’s unproductive chucking and Scott Brooks’ lack of offensive creativity – and rightfully so – few fingers, if any, have pointed to Durant, who is shooting 40 percent from the field, 28 percent from three and 71 percent from the line through five games, while averaging four turnovers per game in addition to his 28 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.0 steals.

Compare that to Paul George, for example, who is being mercilessly heckled by a home fan in Indiana despite averaging 22.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.8 steals, 1.0 blocks and a marvelous 26.9 PER on 46 percent shooting from the field and 51 percent three-point shooting in the Pacers’ so far unsuccessful series against the eighth-seeded Hawks.

If it was LeBron James at the free throw line when Crawford decided to steal the show, would people be blaming the ref or foolishly talking about LeBron ‘choking’ again?

No one would dare bring up the ‘Ch’ word when it comes to KD, though.

Joey Crawford is a referee and a fairly notorious one at that, so he’s an easy target in this case, and Kevin Durant is a transcendent talent and all around good guy in the midst of an absolutely legendary season, but it’s okay to criticize him when the situation calls for it – really. There doesn't always need to be somebody else to blame.