Ex-NBA referee Joey Crawford advocates for challenge systems

INDIANAPOLIS — Joey Crawford, one of the most polarizing NBA referees during his lengthy stint in the league, said the new challenge systems across sports are good because they hold officials accountable.

This season, Major League Baseball introduced its automated ball-strike (ABS) system. Batters, pitchers and catchers can challenge calls throughout the game using an automated tracking system that was instituted this season. Each team is given two wrong calls before they exhaust their challenges. The NBA has had a coach’s challenge system since 2019, the NHL since 2015 and the NFL since 1999.

“You’re paid to get the plays right. You’re paid to get them right,” said Crawford, who still works for the NBA to support officials. “So we train referees and they’re very, very good. They’re going to make mistakes. They are guys who miss a jump shot. Coach calls a timeout they shouldn’t have called. It’s all the same thing. We’ve got to watch. You’re at the end of the game. The key is not to blow that whistle and guess. You got to know that it happened. Don’t assume that it happened.”

Crawford, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, said on the days he would miss a crucial call, he would agonize over it.

“I love [the challenges]. I initially didn’t, but now I just love it because you have to understand at the end of the game if you screw a play up, you’re going back to the hotel, dreading it,” he said. “I had a number of those nights.”

Throughout his time as an NBA ref from 1977 to 2016, he was one of the most recognizable and controversial officials in the game. While he always seemed unaffected by those perceptions, they privately bothered him, he said.

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother [me]. It bothered me. Yes, it did. But it’s the job,” he said. “When you walk out on the court, half are going to like you, half are going to hate you and you’ve just got to take that particular game, go out, call the plays, do it to the best of your ability and stay in shape. My father said, ‘These guys, they know when you work hard and they’ll look the other way if you’re working hard.'”

Crawford, however, said not all the critiques of him were reasonable. He said he thought he was unfairly criticized for the way he handled “superstars.”

“Refs see shirts [not players]. They see shirts,” he said. “And then they said, ‘Well, you made that mistake. You didn’t call that walk, you didn’t do this.’ And I would say, ‘Who had the ball?’ And they said, ‘Well, Michael Jordan had the ball, that’s why he did it.’ I said, ‘Who has the ball at the end of the game? Who?’ And they’ll say, ‘Michael Jordan.’

“That’s every team. The best player has the ball at the end of the game, so if you’re going to make a mistake, you’re usually making a mistake on that best player. And that’s where I think the superstar thing came from.”