NBA Referee Joey Crawford Once Broke His Own Finger Calling a Technical Foul

If you're an NBA fan, you know who referee Joey Crawford is. The guy has been calling NBA games (and technicals) for 35 years now. Crawford's short fuse is legendary. He once threw Larry Nance and Brad Daughtery out of a Cleveland Cavaliers game because they were laughing on the bench.

Of course, Crawford has been around for 35 years because he's also a good ref at the same time as being kind of a hot head. He says he started to see a sports psychologist to help deal with his temper after he broke his finger just by calling a technical foul. Let's let Joey tell it.

Here's how Crawford explained it to the New York Times.

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.

Damn. Crawford also threw out San Antonio's Tim Duncan for laughing once. And here's an example of Crawford's itchy technical finger. 

Article by Eric Gray