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

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Last Answer on September 20, 2019

Best Rated

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 about 12 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.

What”s the most respectful way to interact with ref on an issue I feel might not be correctly officiated. Eg. player repeatedly in violation of 3 seconds or a ref is clearly not implementing a rule correctly - calls traveling on an inbound throw in.

Asked by Randy S about 12 years ago

You might not understand what the ref is doing.  Many refs will not call 3 seconds unless it materially affects a play.  This philosophy is called advantage / disadvantage, and is particularly useful at lower levels.  Don't be the parent or coach who wants a turnover because a low skilled player is camped out in 3 seconds (or an unguarded dribbler carries the ball in the backcourt).  They will call it if the ball gets dumped in there, but if it is not material forget it.  If you find a ref at a lower level who calls everything in the rule book, everytime, you have a ref who will ruin every game

how old do you have to be to be a basketball referee?

Asked by Sam LaVelle over 12 years ago

Every state has its own rules. In Illinois you have to be at least 17 years old to be "patched" by the state. You must be patched by the state to work high school games. However, many park districts and youth clubs hire younger officials to work games. Some of them also offer training and mentoring of young teenagers.

In the NBA they rarely seem to call players for inbounding the ball after a bucket with a foot inbounds. Sometimes they are just lazy and dont even get fully established out of bounds. Why is that?

Asked by rainman over 12 years ago

This was asked by steve w in his June, 2012 questions. Here is the answer I gave him: First, the rule. Your position on the court is based on where you stood (or touched last). So after a rebound a player establishes himself out of bounds (one foot or two), and then lifts a foot through an imaginary plane along the baseline, he is not inbounds until his foot hits the floor inbounds - no violation for breaking the plane by the player throwing in the ball. Secondly, there is the dominent philosophy of basket officating called, "Advantage Disadvantage" which holds that you should only stop the game if an opposing player caused a change in A/D. So, you pass on uncontested palming in the backcourt for example.

Why aren't there more female basketball referees?

Asked by brikhaus over 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.

Is there any rules about a referee feffing a game that he/she has family on one team? . ( for example , the coach is the refs sister and the refs niece is on the team)

Asked by jes about 12 years ago

There is nothing in the Ferderation of High School rule book, but common sense should prevail.  Most assignment chairpersons around here ask if you are connected in some way to a school, and they try to avoid booking conflicts such as hiring a referee at the school where they teach.  In Illinois when you make your dates available to work the state tourney you can exclude schools you are connected to.

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 over 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.