Hawks coach Tab Baldwin reckons he is at his wit's end after his basketball team lost in Wellington last night.
"It's not an excuse for losing but I've lost my patience with the referees," the former Tall Black coach lamented last night after the HBS Bank Hawks succumbed 92-80 to the Wellington Saints in their Bartercard National Basketball League (NBL) match in the capital city.
It wasn't to be as the Paora Winitana-captained Hawks sought to post back-to-back victories over the Pero Cameron-coached Saints at the TSB Arena.
The testosterone-filled encounter had its share of turning points.
The game came to a halt for several minutes in the last quarter, with a shade more than five minutes to play, after the shot clock threw a wobbly.
With just under a minute to go, Hawks import Brian Greene was ejected from the court for throwing a ball at Saints veteran and co-coach Dillon Boucher.
In retaliation Boucher, who referees also banished to the bench, grabbed Greene's throat as players from both sides, including some from the bench, swarmed in for a scuffle before the three officials intervened to separate them.
"Whoever is in charge of the referees is doing the worst job in the world ... ," an irate Baldwin said, adding Basketball New Zealand needed to address the issue.
Earlier in the season, Baldwin was suspended for a game after referees ejected him from the court in New Plymouth in the Hawks' defeat to the Taranaki Mountain Airs. He served a mandatory match suspension against lowly Waitakere Rangers, who also beat the Hawks for their only win.
He said last night's game was physical and niggly with the opposition players holding and pushing.
"Brian spoke with the refs, pleading with them to address the physicality.
"Refs are refs and they'll deal with it if they want to so I have no issues with that.
"Brian had had enough so he threw the ball at Dillon who in retaliation grabbed him by the throat," Baldwin said, suspecting Greene and Boucher would probably have to sit out their next games. The Hawks host the Manawatu Jets here on Saturday night.
Throwing a ball at a player, he felt, shouldn't be punishable with banishment.
"It's staggering refs are so incapable of understanding the ramifications of their actions on a game."
The Hawks had levelled terms in the third quarter but lost love with the rim in the final fling.
Greene registered a double-double of a game-high 29 points, 10 rebounds and six steals to boot while Winitana backed up with 20 points and point guard Jarrod Kenny contributed 12 points and four assists.
"It was a very gruelling game with Darko [Cohadarevic] getting into fell trouble, Sam Walker in foul trouble and Brian Greene was in a little foul trouble, too," Baldwin said.
"The free-throw count was Saints 35 and Hawks 8 so you can't account for that," he said, adding it was not a bad effort from the Hawks considering the Wellingtonians' size advantage and experience over his men.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, their reluctance to rebound was prevalent with Baldwin saying they did all right during scrimmages but inexplicably had a tendency to leave that tenacity behind on match nights.
"Wellington are a talented side and were strong offensively and defensively but we were only good offensively," he said.
No disputes here at all. The Hawks are the real McCoy if airline passenger Kate's testimony of chivalry last weekend is anything to go by.
Returning home from Nelson on Sunday with her 8-month-old and 3-year-old daughters on the same flights as the players, the Hawks' conviviality blew away the Hawke's Bay mum.
"I am NOT a sports fan but I sure am a fan of these guys now," she posted on the Hawks' Facebook site on Monday.
"They carried my bags, entertained/distracted my upset baby, lent a travel pillow to my tired little girl and even [magically] provided a much-wanted apple at just the right moment.
"Great sports people and just great people. Nice to see that chivalry is alive and well in the Bay.
"If only all our sports people could have this kind of integrity and respect for others," Kate wrote.