Steve Javie

Steve Javie (born January 17, 1955 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a professional basketball referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He wears the number 29 to honor his father, longtime National Football League (NFL) back judge Stan Javie.

Steve began his career in the NBA in 1986 and has worked over 1,000 professional regular season games in his career. He graduated from Temple University in 1976, where he played baseball. Attending La Salle College High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he played baseball, football, and basketball, earning All-League honors in baseball and basketball. His baseball athleticism led him to playing in the Baltimore Orioles minor league organization.

Officiating runs in the family, as his father, Stan, was a NFL official for 30 years and officiated four Super Bowls. His godfather, Johnny Stevens, was an American League umpire for 25 years and worked in multiple World Series games. Prior to his career as a NBA referee, Steve officiated five years at the high school level in Pennsylvania and was a baseball umpire in the Florida State League.

Javie is highly regarded among NBA referees, working over a dozen NBA Finals games and about 150 playoff games. NFL referee Jerry Markbreit commented on Steve Javie saying, "I’ve known Steve Javie since he was little boy. I officiated with his father, who was a great NFL official. It appears to me Steve is the strongest of the NBA officials. I watch him on TV all of the time; he’s always working the playoffs or the big games. In the interview Referee did with (NBA referee) Joey Crawford, he said if there was somebody he wanted to work a tough game with, it was Steve Javie. That’s good enough for me." In addition to his NBA Finals appearances, he officiated the 1995 NBA All-Star Game as well as the 1993 Europe Tour in London, England.

Outside of his officiating duties, Steve enjoys golf, cooking, reading and relaxing at the New Jersey shore and raises money for the homeless, the disabled, abused and neglected children through the Javie Foundation for Charity.

He has gained notority among players, media, and fans as "no non-sense" for being quick at assessing technical fouls and ejections towards players, coaches, and even team mascots.

Controversy

Javie has been involved in publicized incidents throughout his NBA career. Here are some of the more notable events:

A 1991 regular season game between the Portland Trailblazers and Washington Bullets saw Steve eject the Bullets' mascot from the game.

In a 1994 NBA game, Portland Trailblazers radio analyst, Mike Rice, was ejected by Javie in a game for disputing calls from his broadcast position. Rice was escorted to the locker room area by arena security.

In 1999, Steve was the first of 10 NBA referees under investigation of tax evasion to be acquitted of charges. These charges stemmed from falsely stating income on tax forms as the result of downgrading airline tickets provided by the league.

During the 2001-02 NBA season, Javie was fined $1,000 by the league for a verbal altercation with Pat Riley, then head coach of the Miami Heat. Allegedly, in a Miami-Cleveland regular season game, Steve got in the face of Riley while the Heat were losing, and said, "It's giving us absolute delight to watch you and your team die."

In a 2007 NBA game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Denver Nuggets, Allen Iverson was quoted about Javie after being ejected. Iverson said, "I thought I got fouled on that play, and I said I thought that he was calling the game personal, and he threw me out, his fuse is real short anyway, and I should have known that I couldn't say anything anyway. It's been something personal with me and him since I got in the league. This was just the perfect game for him to try and make me look bad."

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