A photo taken last summer at the Jersey Shore purported to show a recently retired Joe Crawford relaxing. Instead, with his toes digging at the sand, his hands throttling a chair and his seated torso arched tensely, the former NBA referee looked more like a man trying to unshackle himself.
"I had an awful time being out," Crawford, whose 39-year career as one of basketball's most recognizable officials officially ended in June, conceded recently. "I missed the action."
He's found it again, at least the action one finds as a supervisor in the NBA's office of referee operations, his job since Aug.