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On Saturday, Los Angeles Clippers superstar Chris Paul was fined $25,000 by the NBA for public criticism of a referee.
Now, a player being fined for whinging about an official should not be big news; it happens in every sport across the globe on a regular basis. Such penalties are handed out because maintaining a certain level of respect for officialdom is important, and questioning their integrity and competence should therefore be punished.
Yet, what made the fine handed down to Paul – or CP3, as he is more colloquially known – newsworthy, is the fact that his criticism was directed at female referee Lauren Holtkamp, who is currently completing her first full NBA season.
The comments that got Paul in hot water occurred after his Clippers had lost to LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers.
During that game, Holtkamp dished out a technical foul to Paul when he questioned her decision to pull-up play after the Clippers had attempted to quickly inbound the ball after a successful Cavs free throw.
Addressing the media after the game, and in particular that incident, Paul said:
“Some of [the technical fouls] were ridiculous. 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’s rant immediately created controversy, along with debate around whether his comments were sexist.
So, were they?
First up, let me say that Paul’s comments were out of line, regardless.
If rookie referee Holtkamp was instead a male, and the Clippers point guard’s comments were actually “…this might not be for him”, then the fine would stand, and he still would have been punished. Paul’s outburst was personal and unprofessional, and he deserved to be fined. That’s not up for debate.
Yet there remains a fairly significant difference between ‘personal and unprofessional’ and ‘sexist’.
The honest truth is that I don’t know if Paul was being sexist when he made his comments.
I’ve gotten in trouble before for – and rightfully so – for making assumptions about an athlete’s comments, when I have no way of actually knowing the intent and motivation behind said remarks.
However, my opinion is that I don’t think Paul was being sexist at all; though I freely admit that I don’t definitively know.
I’m also a male, so I need to tread carefully here, because my opinion matters very little when I don’t happen to be a member of the demographic that may or may not feel like they’ve been wronged in this incident.
A number of high-profile females involved in the NBA, however, have leapt to Paul’s defense.
NBA Players Association executive director Michele Roberts issued the following statement:
“Any suggestion that Chris Paul would ever conduct himself in a disrespectful manner towards women is utterly ridiculous, outrageous and patently false. His personal management team, which includes several accomplished women who play a major role in virtually all of his business affairs is, alone, evidence of that fact.
“Without hesitation, the Players Association stands firmly behind Chris, whose competitiveness may only be exceeded by the strength of his values and his convictions.”
Meanwhile, respected San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon – the first full-time female coach in the NBA – also defended Paul, via Twitter:
“Chris Paul is a competitor and he had an opinion, I don’t think it had anything to do with the ref’s gender.”
Paul himself, attempted to downplay his comments, stating that “. . . last night was about a bad call, that’s all.”
As ever, the media was also called into question, with suggestions that ‘inflammatory’ and ‘sensationalistic’ headlines that unnecessarily included the referee’s gender simply fueled the fire, and made the story bigger than it needed to be.
To be fair, there is more than a hint of truth in that sentiment.
Something tells me that a headline of ‘Paul criticises ref’ would fail to generate the same amount of reads and hits that a headline like ‘Chris Paul attacks ‘ridiculous’ female ref’s credibility’, which is what the New York Post ran with.
A bad call. A spontaneous reaction by a player. A tech-foul. A post-game outburst about said call(s). Some over-the-top reporting. Followed by noteworthy defense of the player in question. And lastly, a deserved fine.
Perhaps the story is that simple, and we’ll all have forgotten about this in a week. Perhaps not.
Yet maybe that type of attitude hides the real story here.
Specifically, the angle that suggests the Los Angeles Clippers, and their reputation as perpetual complainers, is where the real focus should be.
Chris Paul never shuts up during a game, and it’s hard to believe that doesn’t get on the referees’ nerves. They, after all, are human.
Meanwhile, power forward Blake Griffin complains with more frequency than a grumpy old neighbour. While I can understand complaining to a ref when they miss a call, the amount of times that Griffin whinges about getting fouled, and then a replay clearly shows the official was right and he wasn’t even touched, is absolutely staggering.
That’s before we even mention small forward Matt Barnes, one of the most fined players in the NBA, who also holds the dubious distinction of being the league leader in technical fouls given this season.
In short, the Clippers complain. A lot.
Chris Paul – and his teammates – may not be sexist, but they are definitely whingers.
So instead of the NBA not being ‘for’ Lauren Holtkamp, perhaps, like the rest of us, she just wanted the Clippers to shut up and play basketball.