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08/12 05:00 CDT Joey Crawford knew as a kid he wanted to be a referee, and it
led him to the Basketball Hall of Fame
Joey Crawford knew as a kid he wanted to be a referee, and it led him to the
Basketball Hall of Fame
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
Joey Crawford had no backup plan.
He would watch Philadelphia 76ers games in the 1960s, and probably unlike most
kids growing up in that area around that time he had no aspirations of becoming
the next Wilt Chamberlain or Billy Cunningham.
Crawford was the son of a baseball umpire --- Shag Crawford worked in the
National League for about 20 years. And that's why, when watching basketball,
Joey Crawford was drawn to the referees. It was the family business.
"My father was a pro and he would be pointing out Mendy Rudolph, Richie Powers,
Earl Strom," Crawford said, referring to some of the game's most prominent
referees of that era. "I'd just be watching them. And my father, he's hitting
me with the sledgehammer: ?You're not gonna play professional baseball, you're
not gonna play professional baseball.' He wasn't going to let me be that guy.
So, I just earmarked refereeing."
He was 13 years old. His mind was made up. Refereeing would be his path.
Little did he know it would take him to the Hall of Fame.
More than a decade after his final NBA game, Crawford is getting enshrined in
this year's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class. The Hall is
reserved for the best of the best, the elite, and for referees the club is
especially elite --- with fewer than two dozen people getting enshrined because
of their work with whistles.
"With Joey, especially if you were away from home, you had a chance to win,"
said longtime NBA coach Mike D'Antoni, another member of the Hall's Class of
2026. "He was going to call the game the way it should be called, whether it's
home or away."
Crawford's numbers are legendary: He officiated more than 2,500 regular-season
games, nearly 400 more in the postseason and 50 of those were in the NBA
Finals. He was a lightning rod for critics, doesn't deny that he had issues
with his temper particularly in his earlier years, and wound up becoming one of
the game's most beloved figures.
And he became a bit of a showman along the way, unafraid to put a funny
personality on display. Doc Rivers, who is going into the Hall as part of this
class as well, loves the story of how he was tasked with guarding a rookie
named Michael Jordan in a game that Crawford was officiating.
Rivers argued that Jordan traveled.
"You didn't give me that call when I was a rookie," Rivers told him.
Crawford's response: "You were not that good."
"It shut me up completely. I had nothing else to say," Rivers said. "I thought
Joey was fantastic about understanding the room and the person he was dealing
with and how to get out of a situation."
Crawford remembers his final game --- Nov. 8, 2015, Cleveland beating Indiana
--- not because of anything that happened on the court before he limped off in
the third quarter, his long-problematic knees leaving him unable to finish, but
rather for what happened in the referee locker room afterward.
"It was my last game. I knew it. Blew my leg out. And I knew I wasn't going to
ref again," Crawford said. "Richard Jefferson was on the Cavs. He knocked on
the door and asked security if he could come in.
"He looked at me and said, ?You're done, aren't you?' I said I was and he says,
'You know, a lot of people hate you. But I tell a lot these players, everybody
should have a Joe Crawford experience.' Every time I tell the story, I start to
well up, because you come to the realization that everybody doesn't hate you.
And I've given people reasons to. I look back on them and I'm not fond of those
times."
Crawford was charged in a 1998 tax scandal involving airline tickets that he
and other referees were accused of selling and not reporting the income. He
wound up resigning, only to be reinstated by then-Commissioner David Stern. And
in 2007, Crawford had a now-infamous incident with San Antonio star Tim Duncan
--- calling two technicals on the Spurs legend for laughing from the bench.
That got him suspended.
Crawford always wondered if those things would keep him out of the hall. He now
has his answer.
"The game is about the players," Crawford said. "I don't care what anybody
says, the players are the key to this. And I'm not taking the political line
here. But if you're a ref, which I am --- I am a ref through and through --- we
know it's not about us. Our job is to get the play right. Technology has
changed, the money has changed, but the job hasn't. But I hope, in my way, I
helped make refereeing better."
That's exactly what he did. Turns out, no backup plan was required.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
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