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

Has anyone devised a plan to reduce the number of free throws in a game? The prolonged set up for foul shots and the productive use of fouls by trailing teams to stop the clock is tiresome and in some sense unsporting.

Asked by RodK about 13 years ago

I have officiated some house leagues, summer high school leagues and travelling basketball tourneys where a shooting foul is awarded 1 point and the ball, and a common foul after 7 team fouls also gets 1 point + ball.  At one point in time there was a proposal in college ball that a team would have the option of shooting free throws OR the ball.  Doesn't seem like anyone talks about that anymore.  I think the pros like close games and slowing the game down with fouls compresses the score, but those last 2 minutes sometimes takes 20 minutes.

In the post position, is it legal for an offensive player to intentionally pull down the arm of a defensive player to receive a pass

Asked by Waldo almost 13 years ago

Simple answer: no.  So again (Advantage Disadvantage), if the post player is setting up down low and swatting the defender's hands and they are in a minor way pushing or leaning on each other, then I am ignoring it or telling them hands off. But as soon as the ball is delivered to the post, and he received it because he swatted the defender's hands away from a legal guarding position, then I am calling an offensive foul.

Non shooting foul is committed in penalty situation, 1 & 1. PA announcer calls 2 shots and the ref hands the ball to shooter andsays 2 shots also. First shot is missed and shooting team get rebound and put back. Can coach argue the mixup?

Asked by Coach K over 12 years ago

The coach can argue mixup all he wants, but it shouldn't matter.  Awarding an unearned free throw is correctible, but all points and fouls earned before the error is detected count.  In this case, an extra free throw was not awarded - the referees simply misled the lane rebounders, and that is NOT correctible.  So, argue til you are blue in the face, and call it lousy officiating, but the play and points by rule stand.

When two players are scrambling for a loose ball can one player "screen" the other from trying to reach it and therefore letting it go out of bounds?

Asked by Josh about 13 years ago

You are allowed to screen or block out if you get to a space before your opponent leaves his feet to get to that spot.  It is no different than blocking out on a rebound.

) When a player returns from out of bounds - to touch a loose ball - does he need to have touched back inbounds with both feet - or is one enough to establish himself ? Thanks for your time Alex

Asked by Alex almost 13 years ago

The rule book states that a player is out of bounds if any part of his body is touching out of bounds or touching a player who is out of bounds.  It also states that an airborne player has the geographical position of where he jumped from (until he lands).  So the player does not by rule have to have two feet in bounds, just one as long as the other is in the air and not out of bounds.

Yea...I am just trying to find out what OTHER PLAYER CONTROL examples are there where the team fouled just gets the ball out of bounds...no free throws if in bonus...I assume an OFFENSIVE CHARGE is one such example(maybe that is wrong), what are some

Asked by MarkM over 12 years ago

OK. Got it.  A player with the ball could push, hold, slap, trip, and charge for player control fouls.  A team mate of the player with the ball could do the same plus illegal screens.  All of these are control fouls with no free throws.

 

What is a typical NBA ref salary and what is the difference between the three refs and what they do?

Asked by Alias over 12 years ago

According to theriches.com beginning NBA referees make $150,000 and senior officials make up to $550,000.  In every game, one official is designated as the "referee" and the others are "officials".  In NFHS, the referee has certain additional duties such as picking who will toss jump balls, giving pre-game instructions etc..  But the "referee" is not supposed to overrule the other two officials.  I suspect that in the NBA, senior officials might have additional duties such as travel arrangements, meetings, training, rule advisories, etc.