I was working a game Sat., two man, when a strange situation happened. This is my second year refing, and my partners first year. A couple minutes into the game, I'm trail, table-side, as player A drives the lane. Player A loses his dribble and the ball is rolling across the court when I hear a player from Team B's bench yell "f****** n***** can't even dribble the ball. (Also, Team B is all white, and Team A is all black.) I turn to look at the bench, trying to figure out what player said it, but apparently my partner was too, so neither of us were watching the court when the ball rolled out of bounds. We stopped the game and assessed an unsportsmanlike technical on Team B's bench, and then went to the AP arrow for possession. Well, Coach B lost it and came over screaming different cuss words and racial slurs right in my face. I whacked him, trying to call a flagrant technical, but before I could, an assistant coach from A came charging over and tackled Coach B. Eventually all the coaches but one (head coach A) got in the fight and were ejected. After we sorting out all the T's, we continued the game with Team B having no coach, but all the players from both teams were on their best behavior.
Couple of questions. Have you guys seen anything like this before? What would you have done in this situation? How could we have done a better job in this game? Thanks.
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