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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When you catch a ball in the air you are considered to be in the court where you jumped from. So you might think that this play is a violation, but there are two exceptions ... 1) by a defensive player intercepting the ball, and 2) by either team on a throw in.
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Carrying the ball is one of ways the rule book states that a dribble comes to an end. So the very next dribble should be called as a double dribble if the player carried the ball prior to the subsequent dribble. My opinion is that refs have allowed too much carrying to go on - the dribbler gains too much control of the basketball if you let a player cup or turn over the ball.
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In high school rules, a player can retrieve the ball after a "legitimate" shot attempt without hitting anything. For example, you could retrieve an airball shot even though the ball has not been touched by another player. However, f the throw to the backboard is not a shot attempt and a player purposely throws it off the backboard, I would call that travelling - much like tossing the ball forward to yourself and moving down the court.
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Hairstylist and Makeup Artist
How much am I supposed to tip my hairstylist?
School Bus Driver
Do the kids treat you with the same amount of respect as other authority figures at school?
Debate Coach
Are presidential debates actually "debates", by the traditional definition?
There is no provision for a referee to overrule another official in the Federation rules book, however in practice one official is designated as the referee in a crew with a responsibility to resolve simultaneous calls. My experience is that before the game this situation is discussed between officials. I think it is important to get the call correct, but each referee has his own area to watch. So if I make a call that one of my partners sees a different way I want that official to approach me, tell me what they saw, I give my perspective and then I decided if I will overrule my own decision. That way I can defend the final outcome. So, a few principles: 1) a ref should be watching their own area - that is why you have 2 or 3 of them, 2) there is some overlap and sometimes a second look sees something you can miss, and 3) officials should decide how they will consider overruling each other before the game. Based on your description (that the shot was clearly made from inside the 3 point line), regardless of how the ref's changed the call they apparently got it wrong.
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OK, we need some common sense here. Normally after a time out and the warning horn sounds, a player would be denied entering the game. This is to eliminate delays due to substitution gamesmanship (in pro hockey for example the home team has "last substitute"). But in the case where a coach has 30 seconds to replace a fouled out player this rule should not, and does not apply to either team. If common sense prevails, the officials should let A-6 in the game.
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Read my answer to the above question, and add this. If I was observing an official who called a foul on a half court tip a shooting foul, I would do all I could to keep him from working a varsity (also a sophomore) game. I will grant you that a player can go through the habitual shooting motion of a shot anywhere on the court and if fouled it could be a shooting foul, even from the back court (as in the end of the quarter), but a tip from half court is unskilled and undeserving of a shooting foul - I would always call a halfcourt tip foul a common foul.
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