Legal News

A Foul, a Chat, a Foul, a Tweet . . . and a Defamation Lawsuit

By Ashby Jones

On first blush, it seems kind of wimpy to sue over a tweet. How much damage, after all, can 140 characters do?

Quite a lot, it turns out, at least according to longtime NBA referee Bill Spooner.

Spooner on Monday sued the Associated Press and one of its sportswriters, alleging that a tweet tweeted by the writer defamed him.

The suit, filed in federal court in Minneapolis, says that because of the note on Twitter, Spooner’s “professional and business reputation as a working, officiating NBA referee has been, and remains, disparaged.” The ref says the AP and the sportswriter have refused to remove the tweet. Click here for the story, from the St. Paul Pioneer Press; here for the complaint.

According to the lawsuit, as summarized by the Pioneer Press story:

With 10:22 left in the second period, Spooner, a 22-year veteran of NBA officiating, called a foul on a Timberwolves player. After the Rockets player shot the first of his two free throws, [Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Kurt] Rambis approached Spooner “and a brief verbal exchange occurred. In the verbal exchange, Coach Rambis questioned plaintiff Spooner about the foul call. …”

Coach Rambis walked away from plaintiff Spooner, commenting with words to the effect of, ‘That’s fine, but how do I get those points back,’ ” the suit contends.

[The AP reporter Jon] Krawczynski was sitting courtside near the scorer’s table and at 7:42 p.m. he tweeted:

“Ref Bill Spooner told Rambis he’d “get it back” after a bad call. Then he made an even worse call on Rockets. That’s NBA officiating folks.”

In other words, Krawczynski’s tweet implied that the call against the Rockets was meant to pay Rambis and the T’wolves back for the earlier lousy call.

In his suit, however, Spooner says he told Rambis that he would review the call on video during halftime and get back to him later.

“It’s one thing to criticize referees and their judgment … but this gets into making up something that didn’t happen, and that something goes to the heart of the integrity of the referee,” said Spooner’s lawyer, Minneapolis attorney Nicholas Paul Granath, told the Pioneer-Press.

Asked for comment, the AP’s general counsel, Dave Tomlin, in New York, replied, “We believe all of the facts we reported from the game in question were accurate.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 15, 2011 (boomark / email).