Joey Crawford, one of NBA’s most famous refs, to retire after season

JOEY Crawford, one of the NBA’s most popular referees, announced that he will retire at the end of the 2015-16 season.

CLEVELAND, OH - JUNE 11: Referee Joe Crawford #17 officiates during Game Four of the 2015 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on June 11, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

QUICK: Name an NBA referee.

Assuming you’re not conspiratorially minded, we’re guessing the first name that popped into your head is Joey Crawford. Crawford’s earned quite the reputation during his 39 seasons as an NBA referee. Through grand gesticulations that draw your attention and ejecting players for laughing on the bench, we all know Joey Crawford.

But we won’t for very much longer. According to the Delaware County Times, Crawford will retire at the end of the 2015-16 season:

“I’m done,” he said. [ ...]

“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.”

LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers argues a call with referee Joey Crawford in the first quarter against the Golden State Warriors during Game Four of the 2015 NBA Finals.

Beyond the theatrics and the clashes of personality for which he’s famous, Crawford has remained one of the NBA’s very best referees. League officials, coaches and observers have noted that if Crawford had been on the job on the night of the Malice at the Palace, for example, the whole ordeal likely never would have happened. His approach to the game is designed to draw attention away from tense situations and make it known that the officials are in charge.

You didn’t always like it, of course. Crawford had a knack for rubbing people the wrong way and going overboard at times — something he’s acknowledged late in his career and something he says he tried to correct. Take that incident in which he ejected Tim Duncan for laughing on the bench. Crawford told The New York Times in 2012 that altercation “changed his life.”

Crawford is recovering from knee surgery and hopes to return to the court on March 1. Assuming he makes the grade for the postseason — a safe bet, given his standing within the league and his excellence as an official — the 2016 playoffs will be the end of the line for Crawford. And the NBA won’t be the same after he’s gone.

This story originally appeared on FOX Sports US

Originally published as Joey Crawford, one of NBA’s most famous refs, to retire after season