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

Are players allowed to disagree with calls if they are not directing their comments to the ref but to players on their own team?

Asked by Riley about 9 years ago

Yes as long as they do it without trying to show up the ref. For example, the player turns to his bench and says loudly, "that fat a$$ is the worst ref we've ever had". That would be a t.

Would you call this a foul or a block when a player goes for a simple underhand layup and the defender puts his arms across your body and cups the ball on top preventing you from extending your hand up and going forward.

Asked by RonanC about 8 years ago

Assuming the arm across did not cause contact, then when 2 oppposing players push the ball simultaneously in opposite directions it is a jump ball.

Is it acceptable to hand the ball to an inbounder rather than passing the ball to an inbounder?

Asked by Cholly about 9 years ago

yes, unless the mechanics have changed in the past couple years, we were required to hand the ball to the in bounders on end line throw-ins. There is an advantage of bouncing the call to the in bounder on the sidelines because it allows the on-ball referee administering the throw in to step back and take a wider view (while he counts the 5 seconds).

That seems to be the generic answer to the slamming/spiking the ball issue. So shouldn't it state this in the rule book? Otherwise, I agree, it could be used arbitrarily by some less than idea ref to punish one team over another.

Asked by Daniel about 9 years ago

The rule book does not spell out all the ways of committing a technical foul. I believe that working your way up through ranks sifts out most referees with poor judgement and thin skin, not always but at most levels it is so competitive that the better officials tend to move forward and ref the better games. That is how the system cultivates good judgement - and I'll admit there are officials who come in with a chip on their shoulders and stretch their judgement unfairly against a team or player, but it is the assignment chairman's job to weed out these kind of officials.

Thank you sir

Asked by Casey about 9 years ago

you are quite welcome!

What is the result if two teams had only two players and all of them had fourth personal foul, then two players commit a double foul??

Asked by Caiverson over 8 years ago

I dont know. Normally a team is disqualified if it no longer has at least 2 players left to play. Never have seen even 1 team disqualified for going under 2.

Sometimes a ball will rest/balance itself perfectly on the bracket & stay.So what happens on a last sec. shot to tie/win the game. Seems like they'd just have to stay all night to see if it falls thru. What would you do in this situation.

Asked by Tony r about 8 years ago

Give it a couple seconds to move. If not, the shot is over and so is the game.