NBA 4-Person Mechanics

[JugglingReferee]

One of the issues with 2-person crews is that in transition, the new L often gets way behind the play because the athletes are much quicker than the officials.

Going to 3-person helped because the T could hang closer to the division line, and hopefully get a jump on getting back to the endline ahead of the play.

Watching NBA games this year, there are still TONNES of instances where the in-transition L is actually a C at best. To this end, I developed the 4-person basketball officaiting system. A patent is pending, so if you're lurking Stern or Nunn or whomever you are, you'll owe me lots of $$$$ if you use a 4-person system.

First possession:

• Toss is done by the R facing the table.
• U1 takes a position as in 2-person.
• U2 is singing somewhere for a benefit concert. Sorry, U2 is in the L position under the home basket, and U3 is L under the visitor's basket. Both U2 and U3 are on the opposite side to start the game.
• Once a team gains possession, U1 becomes the C and R becomes T. The L official not being used (U2 or U3) then rotates to table side.

Subsequent possessions:

The C and T now slide up and down the court reversing positions. The T becomes the new C and the C becomes the new T. The L on the other end of the court doesn't move off the endline.

Rotations:

The L may initiate a rotation just like 3-person crews, but it also forces the L at the other end of the court to flip from opposite to table side, or from table to opposite side.

Switches:

As in 3-person NBA mechanics.

This will bring many more officials into the NBA officiating ranks, which creates jobs for the American economy, which is always good. Oh ya, and since 3% of the NBA teams are from Canada, 3% of the officiating staff must be Canadians.

[Back In The Saddle]

I wrote an article on this for the pay side a couple of years ago. So your patent is invalid because my "prior art" already exists. But I'm not greedy; I'll give you 3% of my royalties.

Another benefit of this is that assigners could send a crew of four to do an all-day tourney. No having to worry about games off, or how many games a ref can run in a day. 4 guys can do a dozen or more games, and still be fresh as a daisy.

[FrankHtown]

And it's great if a team goes to a 4 corner offense

[Mark Dexter]

I've always like the 4-person Barcalounger system.

Put a recliner in each corner of the court, sit with a nice cold beverage and your whistle - no rotations needed.

[TussAgee11]

Forgive me for my lack of details on this, but I can recall reading a NYT article about a D-III team who scored about 140 a game (and gave up about as much). They subbed every whistle and had no set offense other than "GO".

The refs decided to just station the T underneath the other basket, because 2 of the members on the crew remembered back to their last game with this team (located in NYC) and said all 3 members of the crew sat in the shower after the game for about an hour, so exhausted.

Perhaps they could have used this 4 man mechanics. I think 5 man would have worked nicely, 2 refs sitting above the shot clock like goal judges in the NHL (which have been eliminated BTW).

[caliref]

what about something that is way "old school" in california where the 3rd official is up high in the stands and is calling everthing that the 2 officials are missing???? Just a thought....