NBA Referee Sues Reporter Over Tweet During Timberwolves Game

NBA referee has sued an Associated Press reporter for a tweet sent during a game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Houston Rockets at Target Center on Jan. 24, reports the Minneapolis Business Journal. If you follow Jon Krawczynski on Twitter, you might remember the tweet in dispute.

You might have been thinking the same thing watching the game at home. The difference is that you’re not an AP writer. That’s why Bill Spooner, a veteran referee, is suing Krawczynski for libel.

Spooner is seeking $75,000 in damages. He also wants the tweet unpublished and a retraction.

“Defendant Krawczynski published this statement on his AP Twitter account knowing at the time, or with reckless disregard of the truth at the time, or without due care of the truth at the time, that Plaintiff Spooner did not tell Coach Rambis that ‘he’d get it back’ nor utter any words to that effect, and therefore that the quoted attribution was, in fact, false.”

The AP is standing behind Krawczynski, saying, “We believe all of the facts we reported from the game in question were accurate.”

To be fair, only nine people re-tweeted Krawczynski’s initial tweet, so it’s not like it went that far. Then again, maybe that’s because the idea that an NBA ref would do that doesn’t surprise anyone. Hence, the libel suit. Spooner said he filed the suit after Krawczynski’s tweet sparked an internal NBA review on the ref.