An NBA referee of 22 years has sued the Associated Press and its Minneapolis sportswriter, alleging that the reporter errantly suggested in a tweet that the official said he would make up for a bad call that went against the Timberwolves.
Referee William Spooner's lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Minneapolis, seeks at least $75,000 in damages and removal of the Jan. 24 tweet.
Reporter Jon Krawczynski's tweet harmed Spooner's "integrity and honesty, which are essential to the performance of his profession ... of officiating NBA games," the defamation suit alleges.
Krawczynski "should have known that the statement was false or that it would create a false impression," the suit adds.
In a tweet at 7:42 p.m., as he covered the Timberwolves' home game against the Houston Rockets from near the scorer's table, Krawczynski wrote:
"Ref Bill Spooner told [Wolves coach Kurt] Rambis he'd 'get it back' after a bad call. Then he made an even worse call on Rockets. That's NBA officiating folks."
Krawczynski declined to comment about the suit. The wire service's associate general counsel, Dave Tomlin, said, "We believe all of the facts we reported from the game in question were accurate."
When asked Tuesday for his version of events at that moment in the game, Rambis also declined to comment.
