Joe Crawford

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For the player, see Joe Crawford (player).

Joe Crawford

Joseph "Joe" Crawford (born August 30, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a professional basketball referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA) wearing the number 17. He currently resides in Newton Square, Pennsylvania. He is married and has three children. His father, Shag Crawford, was a Major League Baseball umpire in the National League from 1956 to 1975 and his brother, Jerry, is a current major league umpire.

[edit] Career

Joe began his NBA career in 1977 at the age of 25. Prior basketball officiating experience included eight years of Pennsylvania high school from 1970 to 1977 and also the Eastern Basketball Association (later the Continental Basketball Association or CBA) in 1974 and 1977. Outside of officiating games, he also worked as a United States Postal Service mail carrier from 1972 to 1975.

Joe developed a reputation early in his NBA career for being "the guy handing out all the technical fouls, throwing guys out of games, a hothead, a real red-ass." Among his fellow officials, he became "the guy you wanted to go to war with, someone who’d have your back and take care of business." He firmly stood behind his profession and did not tolerate players or coaches who disrespected it. His philosophy was that he had to be aggressive. Crawford would later discover about himself that he had problems controlling his temper and sought anger management after an altercation with a coach. To this day, Joe continues to battle his temper problems.

Despite his short temper on the court, Crawford is considered one of the premier officials in the NBA. He has worked more playoff and NBA Finals games than any other active referee in the league and has appeared in the Finals every year since 1986.

[edit] Notable events

In 1998, Joe was one of 10 NBA referees charged with filing false income tax returns. An Internal Revenue Service investigation was the result of cash being pocketed by referees when airline tickets provided by the league were downgraded. At the conclusion of a four year investigation, Crawford pleaded guilty on July 1, 1998 for falsely stating income of $82,500 from 1991 to 1993 and resigned from the NBA effective immediately. He would be reinstated by NBA commissioner David Stern in 1999 and did not miss a game due to a players' lockout to start the 1998-99 NBA season.

During the 2003 NBA playoffs, Joe assessed two technical fouls and ejected Don Nelson, then head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, for not returning to his team's bench after disputing a foul called against his team. After discussing the incident with the league, Crawford determined that he should have waited longer and let Nelson become the aggressor, not him.