For 39 years, Joey Crawford has been a referee in the NBA. He’s definitely the most well-known ref today. Crawford has decided that 39 years is enough.
“I’m done.” Crawford told Jack McCaffery of the Delaware County Daily Times:
Crawford has sat out this season thus far, recovering from knee surgery. He hopes to return to the court by March 1st, though, and plans on refereeing through the playoffs.
Via McCaffery:
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Crawford said. “You know what happens? It’s not that you lose your passion. I have that. That’s insanity. But it just comes to the point where you say, ‘I don’t want to make a fool out of myself.’ And it’s been so good that I want to go out on a high note. I don’t want to go out on a low note. I want to be in the NBA Finals, and I don’t want to be reffing just for the sake of reffing.”
Crawford has been a referee in the NBA since the 1988-89 season. He has officiated 1755 regular season games, and 313 playoff games, including 50 NBA Finals games.
Crawford has been at the center of controversy at times, such as when he was suspended for ejecting Tim Duncan for laughing from the bench. All in all, though, Crawford has been a big part of the NBA during his time as a referee. He’s officiated more playoff games than any other active ref, and is highly-respected around the NBA.
UPDATE:
Joey Crawford will retire immediately due to a knee injury, according to Steve Aschburner of NBA.com.
In fact, Crawford, the league’s senior official and one of the most recognizable and controversial referees in NBA history, has worked his last game.
Sidelined since November by recurring pain and arthritis in his right knee and recovering since surgery Dec. 4 on a meniscus tear in that knee, Crawford had hoped to return March 1 for what was left of his 39th and final NBA season and postseason. But his knee has not responded well enough to rehabilitation to allow that. So there’s zero chance he and Kobe Bryant will work their final games together.
“You turn the page, y’know, and you think, ‘It’s somebody else’s turn,’ ” Crawford told NBA.com in a phone interview Wednesday. “But you still miss it. You miss the people.
“I’m just lucky that a lot of the refs, they’ll call me up. I don’t know if they do it because they feel sorry for me, but they’ll say, ‘Can you break down a quarter for me here or a quarter there?
“I was lucky. For 35 years or so it was only like, a calf [strain] here or there. But the last two years, my 38th and 39th, it just broke down on me. What’re ya gonna do? You just move on.”
