According to the San Antonio Express-News, Spur guard Nick Van Exel's ejection by ref Steve Javie is not the first time the two have crossed paths.

Playing for the Denver Nuggets back in 2001, Van Exel claimed that Javie called him a "miserable person" during a game in Milwaukee. He also claimed Javie cursed at him, using an expression unprintable in a family newspaper.

After the incident in Milwaukee, Van Exel told the Denver Post that Javie "has been on me since I came into the league, basically."

"(Javie) has a grudge," Van Exel said then. "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. I would get thrown out of the game. But he 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 was dressed and gone from the Spurs' locker room by the time the media was allowed inside.