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Friday, February 2, 2001
Issel comes to defense of Van Exel
Associated Press
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DENVER, Colo. – In four of the last five Denver Nuggets
games officiated by Steve Javie, either a player or head coach Dan
Issel has been ejected.
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| Van Exel |
Guard Nick Van Exel said it's because Javie has it in for him.
The latest ejection happened Wednesday when Issel was ejected
for defending his player.
"(Javie) comes up to me and tells me that 'you're a miserable
person' and basically laughs in your face – and with a smirk, like,
'You can't do anything about it,' " Van Exel said.
A New York-based NBA spokesman said Friday the league looked
into the incident and found no further action is needed. Javie
could not immediately be reached through the NBA office.
Van Exel, a Nuggets tri-captain, said he walked away from Javie
and did not say anything to him or the other game officials after
the alleged comment. Van Exel did not receive a technical foul, but
Issel was tossed out of the game after coming to his player's
defense.
"I will always stick up for my players," Issel said Thursday
after a practice in Indianapolis. "And I'm not going to let
anybody talk about them in derogatory terms. It's not right and
it's not true.
"That's all I'm going to say about it, because you have no
recourse," Issel said. "If you say anything derogatory publicly
about the officials, you get fined. I'm not going to lose money on
top of it."
Research by the Nuggets revealed that of Issel's past seven
ejections over two seasons, Javie threw him out five times. Also,
in the past five Nuggets games officiated by Javie, either a
Nuggets player or Issel has been ejected in four of them.
The Nuggets do not contend that Javie is a bad official, a team
staff member said. But Issel and the players believe it is unfair
that Javie has what appears to be a personal grudge against the
team.
Javie "has been on me since I came into the league,
basically," Van Exel said. "It's not fair that you pretty much
know that before the game starts. You get into a situation where an
official says something like that to me, and if I was saying
something like that to him, I would be in trouble. I would get a
technical (foul). I would get thrown out of the game."
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