Not Surprisingly, Joey Crawford Has Anger Management Issues

I just caught wind of this interesting article posted by The New York Times on Saturday.  In it, Joey Crawford shares his story, which is actually quite fascinating.  Crawford became an NBA official over three decades ago, way back in 1977, so he’s got a slew of interesting tales.  Unfortunately, though, the parts of the piece that stood out to me were the ones that reflect Crawford’s personality, which, honestly, seems less than ideal for an NBA referee.  For years I’ve suspected that Joey, on top of having a short temper, has had a desire to leave his mark on basketball games.  Obviously, the number-one indicator of a great official is his (or Violet Palmer’s) ability to do the exact opposite.  I suggest reading the article in its entirety, but here are a few key excerpts that, in Joey’s own words, touch on the way he goes about doing his job, his admiration of Jack Nicholson, and his historically-quick whistle.

In my third year, I’m still a kid. I’m only 28 years old. But when we were in L.A., we always put our warm-up jacket on the table right by where Jack Nicholson sat. I was a big Jack Nicholson fan — “Easy Rider,” you know, all that. I loved his stuff. I would see him there and I would catch his eye, but I never said anything.

But in my third year in the league, I put my jacket there and I see him and I catch his eye and I say, “How you doing, Jack?” and he actually says, “How you doing, Joe?” and I was exploding.

I went and called my wife. I’m not kidding, I ran to a pay phone. And when she picked up, I screamed, “Jack Nicholson knows me!”

…

I can honestly say, I have no idea who I gave my first technical to. I have no idea. I gave so many of them. I hate to say it, but when I first started, it was like giving candy.

Once, I threw out Don Nelson for staring at me. He just folded his arms and looked at me. He called a timeout to do it. Looking back on it, I was not happy with that.

I have people in Cleveland who stop me at the airport and they say that they were there when I threw out Brad Daugherty and Larry Nance for laughing. They were sitting at the end of the bench. There was something that I did that they didn’t like and they wouldn’t stop, and I just went: “You want to go? Go. Go.” Boom. It wasn’t good.

One night, I hit Bill Fitch with a technical so hard, I broke my finger. My finger was all swollen. I slammed my whole hand down on it when I gave the signal. That’s why I changed my signal to a little one-finger tap — because I broke it once the old way.

Honestly, I think after that whole mess was the first time I called the sports psychologist.

…

The Duncan thing probably changed my life. It was just — you come to the realization that maybe the way you’ve been doing things is not the proper way and you have to regroup, not only on the court but off the court.

I had seen a sports psychologist before that. But after, I saw him a lot more. His name is Joel Fish. He’s worked with a lot of athletes. It gave me a new perspective.

Okay, so Crawford admits to not having done things “the proper way” until the Tim Duncan incident.  That happened in 2007, meaning Joey had been doing things improperly for 30 years.  Also, if you’re a visitor to the Staples Center, particularly in the Playoffs or even the Finals, do you want Jack Nicholson’s #1 fan calling the game?  On top of all that, the man openly discusses his problems with anger management.

Listen, I’m not saying Joey Crawford is a bad guy, or that he can’t observe a play and make a good call.  He’s been officiating basketball games for longer than I’ve been alive, so he obviously knows a thing or two about his job.  All I’m saying is that he lacks certain traits of a great referee, and that he probably shouldn’t call important Laker games ’cause he damn near wet his pants the first time he chatted with Jack Nicholson.