Havertown native’s 39th NBA season to be his last
NEWTOWN SQUARE >> One of the most recognizable figures in the NBA and an enduring Philadelphia basketball legend has made his most challenging call.
Joe Crawford, the official known for his passion and his professionalism, will retire at the end of this season, his 39th in the NBA. “I’m done,” he said. Recovering this basketball season in his Newtown Square home from knee surgery, the Havertown native hopes to resume refereeing pro-basketball games by March 1. If he grades out, and that is the likely result, he will work in the playoffs, eventually hoping to add to his career total of 50 NBA Finals games officiated. Then, the former worker at the Wayne post office, the former CYO, Catholic League, Public League, Eastern League and anyDelco-bar-league referee will silence his whistle.
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.”
Ironically, that’s how Crawford was drawn to the profession in the first place: A compulsion almost to do nothing else. In a way, he was born into it, as his father, Shag Crawford, was a respected major league umpire. His older brother, Jerry Crawford, also was a major league ump.
In that family tradition, Crawford succeeded with his accuracy, his fairness and his preparation.
“In the years I have been doing it, I have never met anybody who has more of a passion for officiating than Joe Crawford,” said NBA ref Eddie Malloy, like Crawford a graduate of Cardinal O’Hara High. “And I think that’s probably the heart of it, why he is so good; he takes such a pride in it.
“One of the first games I ever worked with him was a regular-season game, early November, Sacramento at New York. And the way he prepared in the locker room for that game, it got my attention. I was amazed at how much he was getting focused and getting ready for the ballgame. This was in November, the first week of the regular season. And this was 13 years ago, so at that point he probably had worked 30 Finals games. But the way he prepared for that game, I have never seen anybody else prepare like that.”
In 2014, Crawford received the Golden Whistle Award from the National Association of Sports Officials, the highest award in the profession.
Known for his on-court discipline and forceful, rapid, even stylish execution of the “T” sign to indicate a technical foul, Crawford’s passion bubbled over in 2007 when he believed he’d seen Tim Duncan laughing at him from the bench. A confrontation ensued and Crawford was alleged to have challenged the San Antonio Spurs star to a fight. Crawford was suspended for the remainder of the season, an episode he still regrets.
“I learned a lot from it,” he said. “It made me a better ref. Thank God that David Stern brought me back. But I learned a lot from it.”
Crawford has officiated 313 playoff games, most among active refs. For his 50 NBA Finals games, and for his lifetime of work that began at age 16 in a summer league at the Sacred Heart parish in Manoa, he was named by the
sports department as the 2015 Delaware County Sports Figure of the Year.
He insists, though, that the shot clock has expired on his on-court career.
“I have been very, very lucky,” he said. “The thing that bothers me the most is that we have had a Crawford in pro sports since the ’50s. My father’s first year in the big leagues was ’56, I was at Jerry’s last game in Baltimore in 2010 and I was holding back tears, thinking, ‘This is the last time a Crawford is going to be working a major league game.’ It was weird.”
As per his reputation, though, Crawford is certain about his final career decision.
“It has been,” he good run.”
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