NBA Hits and Flops of the Week (7-13 March)
It’s around this time of the year that the annual NCAA Basketball tournament or “March Madness”, as it is popularly called, steals away some of the viewers from the NBA. It’s a tournament with the top college prospects get a chance to showcase their talents on national television against the very best colleges in the country.However, this by no means reduces the importance of the current month in the NBA. The East has a lot of Playoff positions at stake. The bottom four playoff spots in the West can be easily interchanged among teams depending upon their form heading into the post-season.Anyway without completely sticking to the on-court action, here’s a recap of the biggest hits and flops of the week from March 7th to March 13th:
#1 Hit: Joey Crawford farewell season ends early due to knee injury
It was around New Year’s when Joey Crawford, one of the most recognizable non-player people on the court in the NBA, told Jack McCaffery of Delaware County Daily Times, that he had decided to retire at the end of the season.
As he was giving this interview, the NBA refereeing legend was recovering from a meniscus tear in his right knee that he suffered in November. He had hoped to return by March 1st and eventually work some games and eventually the Playoffs. However, things didn’t work out as planned as Crawford’s knee has not responded well enough to rehabilitation for him to return to the court.
The news broke out on Thursday and in a telephonic interview with NBA.com, this is what the veteran had to say.
"You turn the page, y'know, and you think, 'It's somebody else's turn. But you still miss it. You miss the people. I'm just lucky that a lot of the refs, they'll call me up.
“I don't know if they do it because they feel sorry for me, but they'll say, 'Can you break down a quarter for me here or a quarter there? I was lucky. For 35 years or so it was only like, a calf [strain] here or there. But the last two years, my 38th and 39th, it just broke down on me. What're ya gonna do? You just move on."
Now on most occasions such a huge figure retiring should be a flop but we see it as a celebration of a great career coming to an end.
Crawford (64) has worked 39 years in the NBA as a referee calling 2,561 regular season games, second only to Hall of Famer Dick Bavetta (2,635). He has called 374 Playoff games (most in the NBA history) while the 50 NBA Finals games he has called come second to Mendy Rudolph, another Hall of Famer.