Fast Break

NBA

NBA takes fight out of referee

Joey Crawford is done ejecting players and coaches this season. On Tuesday, he was the one getting tossed.

The veteran NBA referee was suspended indefinitely by commissioner David Stern for his conduct toward Tim Duncan, who contends the official challenged him to a fight during a game in Dallas.

Crawford ejected Duncan from San Antonio’s loss after calling a second technical foul on the Spurs star while he was laughing on the bench.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?’ ” Duncan said. “If he wants to fight, we can fight. I don’t have any problem with him, but we can do it if he wants to. I have no reason why in the middle of a game he would yell at me, ‘Do you want to fight?’ “

The NBA also fined Duncan $25,000 for verbal abuse of an official. Crawford said Duncan referred to him with an expletive.

NBA

Bennett: Sonics likely to leave

Seattle SuperSonics majority owner Clay Bennett says Gov. Chris Gregoire won’t call lawmakers into special session to keep the team’s plans for a new arena alive, and that the NBA team likely will not play in Seattle beyond the 2007-08 season.

He also stated the Sonics will honor their KeyArena lease that runs through 2010 – but most likely only through “a legal exercise.”

“That may or may not mean the team will play there,” Bennett said, knowing Seattle’s NBA team for the last 40 years is obligated to stay in the city for one more season.

Basketball

Vandals add assistant coach

As expected, the University of Idaho men’s program bolstered its coaching and recruiting talents with the addition of former University of Utah assistant Mike Score.

Score spent the past three seasons at Utah where the Utes advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament during the 2004-05 season. Prior to his time at Utah, Score spent four seasons as an assistant at Eastern Washington University after earning his start in coaching with four seasons at Southeastern Community College (Iowa).