Basketball Referee

Basketball Referee

Rndballref

20 Years Experience

Chicago, IL

Male, 60

For twenty years I officiated high school, AAU and park district basketball games, retiring recently. For a few officiating is the focus of their occupation, while for most working as an umpire or basketball referee is an avocation. I started ref'ing to earn beer money during college, but it became a great way to stay connected to the best sports game in the universe. As a spinoff, I wrote a sports-thriller novel loosely based on my referee experiences titled, Advantage Disadvantage

SubscribeGet emails when new questions are answered. Ask Me Anything!Show Bio +

Share:

Ask me anything!

Submit Your Question

651 Questions

Share:

Last Answer on September 20, 2019

Best Rated

Jump ball, players set up wrong, refs did not notice, I did notice.....other team got jump,both teams are playing its game on...i planned on telling refs when they scored, they did so I brought it to there attention. Do we get there points?

Asked by Crettercoacha almost 12 years ago

No you don't get the points. The referees should stop the game once they realize the game is being played in the wrong directions. Points made, stand. Turn the teams around, and the refs should be incredibly embarrassed. This is very simple. The home teams picks which bench they want to use before the game. Each team scores at the basket opposite of their benches in the first half. Bad officiating - whether it is a two or three person crew someone should have caught it DURING THE WARMUPS!

Why aren't there more female basketball referees?

Asked by brikhaus almost 12 years ago

There needs to be more women referees at all levels. In the conferences I worked in there was a fair amount of pressure on the assignment chairs to put qualified women at the varsity level. However, I observed that at clinics and in associations which form the pools of available referees, the participants were predominantly men. So when a talented female referee was "discovered", my experience is that the path to college assignments (mentoring, camps, and connections) opened up quickly for them. In my view, there is not enough emphasis on recruiting and mentoring early on, and so the pool is drained of quality female talent quickly. For anyone to move ahead in your officiating career you have to be solid in rules knowledge, judgement, hustle, etc, but now is a great time for qualified women to take advantage of the scarcity. If a female ref is any good, she probably can move up and be discovered a little faster.

No one's ever been able to explain this to me: why do NBA announcers say "shooting one, plus the penalty, for two" when a player's about to shoot 2 free throws? When EVERY foul that results in free throws is two shots in the NBA, no?

Asked by GLuv almost 12 years ago

The only exception to 2 free throws being awarded in the NBA that I know of is in the last two minutes of the game it is 1 free throw plus possession. There is a good chart of NBA free throws on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_throw So who knows what the announcers are saying? They also say that some fouls are "over the back" and others are "reaching in", neither of which are defined in the rule book.

I'm having trouble with offensive fouls. If a defender is stationery, a dribbler will be called if they collide, fair enough. But can a dribbler deliberately take a turn into a defender guarding him on the run in man coverage to draw a foul?

Asked by RodK over 11 years ago

A defender has the right to a vertical space if he gets there before the offensive leaves his space to move.  Therefore, a defender can be moving and still take a charge.  The rule book calls this moving obliquely - that is away or angled. If an offensive player turns into a space the defender is entitled to, it is a charge.

I am referee back here in Australia, and I was wondering, in the FIBA rules book, once you called the traveling, no matter how big or small it is, just call it right? or just let go the little traveling? I just can't help it called every traveling

Asked by clumsyj almost 12 years ago

There is great debate here about whether you should call every infraction, or should you call violations and infractions only if there is a change in advantage? I personally believe that it is better to use the Advantage/Disadvantage considerations at the lower levels where the skill set is more limited. If, in a freshman game you call everything you will most assuredly ruin the flow of basketball and probably foul out most of the starters. At the varsity level, or college there is less to NOT CALL. Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks is strongly against Advantage/Disadvantage officiating in the NBA. Juries out, and every official I know has a different take on this (and so do the coaches).

A player is fouled in the act of shooting or when their team in in the bonus. After the foul is called the player who was fouled commits a technical foul which is their fifth foul. Are they allowed to shoot their foul shots or is another player?

Asked by Don almost 12 years ago

I have never seen that, but I would administer as follows: I would not allow a disqualified player to shoot the free throws. Since free throws are administered in the order the fouls were committed, 1) bring in the sub, 2) the sub shoots the free throws awarded o the fouled out player, 3) team b shoots the technical fouls, 4) team b gets the ball at half court.

During a recent game, I was called for a technical foul for attempting to call a timeout during live play when my team didn't have possession of the ball (on a loose ball tie-up). Is that a rule?

Asked by Coach Paul over 11 years ago

Merely asking for timeout when your team does not have possession is not a technical foul, UNLESS it is done in a purposeful, unsportsmanlike manner.  So if you ask for the timeout in the way you normally ask, the referee should ignore you, and better yet say something like "no timeout, you don't have possession".  If my judgement was that the coach was trying to get an advantage, such as an erroneous whistle (to get a sub in for instance, or give his players a short rest), or to distract the officials from the game then I would call an unsportsmanlike technical.  Having said all of that, I have never called a T on a coach for asking for a timeout without ball possession.