Joey Crawford to retire after 39th season as NBA referee
Longtime NBA ref Joey Crawford will step away at the end of this season.
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1 min read
Referee Joey Crawford will retire at the end of this season, he told the Delaware County Daily Times' Jack McCaffery. The 64-year-old Crawford is in his 39th season as an NBA official, and he is the league's most prominent one.
Crawford, who is recovering from knee surgery, said he hopes to be back by March 1 and, of course, work more playoffs and finals games.
From the Delaware County Daily Times:
“I’m done,” he said.
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At 64, Crawford hopes to continue working in the executive side of the NBA in some capacity involving officiating. But the famous No. 17 will no longer be seen on the floor, making tough calls, threatening technical fouls, smiling with the coaches, enjoying the fans.
“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 reffed 50 NBA Finals games and 313 playoff games, more than any other active official. It is hard to imagine him not remaining with the league in some way. Despite his intensity on the court, he's known as one of the nicest guys you'll come across. In 2014, he won the officiating's highest honor, the Gold Whistle Award from the National Association of Sports Officials.
