NBA players and referees have always had a tricky relationship — a budding one when a call is made in their favor and a rather poor one when the whistle fails to blow or it blows against them. Fans' relationship with the zebras is a tad different, as there will always be a reason to put one down for a missed or bad call.

Former referee Joey Crawford, who officiated in the league for 38 years, is still amazed at how fans treat officials, now working in the AAU circuit after retiring from the NBA game.

“I've been retired a while, but I'm still stunned by the insanity of [how people treat officials],” Crawford told ESPN's Jackie MacMullan. “I'm involved with women's AAU basketball in Philadelphia these days, and we go to tournaments, and we see these crazy parents. Everyone is acting out of control over a game between 10-year-olds. We tell our parents, ‘Don't holler at referees,' but clearly not everyone else is getting the message.”

Things are even worse at the NBA level, as fans are now paying customers with ticket stubs and now bets at stake, looking to constantly point the finger at an official for a judgment call.

Crawford had been known as a hothead among the officiating crew, and he recently explained why some of these interactions bothered him so much throughout the years.

“My problem was my anger,” Crawford admitted. “I was trying to deal with why I was getting so angry on the court. [Retired veteran official] Wally Rooney told me, ‘Joey, they're not hollering at you, they're hollering at the shirt.' I couldn't get that in my head. It used to bother me that some guy was screaming at me when he didn't know anything about what we did.”

Fan rage isn't getting any better now that the NBA players seem to have an even more strained relationship with the new wave of officials coming into the league — a collision that must come to a halt before the bridge of communication is ruptured beyond repair.