Joey Crawford will hang up the whistle and retire as a referee at the end of the NBA season.
“I’m done,” Crawford told Jack McCaffrey of the Delaware County Times.
“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 refereeing NBA games since 177. He has worked 313 playoff games and 50 NBA Finals games in his career. He has yet to referee this year as he’s recovering from knee surgery and hopes to return by March 1. He hopes to work on the league’s executive side after retiring.
Crawford has courted controversy during his career, famously challenging Tim Duncan to a fight in 2007. He’s also told Timofey Mozgov to shut up during a Finals game, and has berated scorekeepers and ballboys alike.
H/T ESPN
