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The Whistle - The reason "good officials" are considered good officials and advance to the next level of play is GAME MANAGEMENT. You have to be able to understand the situation and determine what is the appropriate action (violation, foul, T, no call, etc.). What you have described - looking to balance out lopsided foul counts and "killing the loser w/ kindness" - are two examples of good officiating. Coaches may not want to hear that, but experienced, veteran officials talk about it all the time. Despite the "black and white rules" of the rule books, there are plenty of gray areas that call for judgement - that's when you as an official can excell. For example - take an extra second or two before administering a throw-in when you see a sub on his way to the table to report; when calling a foul w/ mulitple defensive players involed - give it to the kid with the least amount of fouls (which means you need to have an idea of fouls counts -especially on the best players on the floor); don't bail an offensive player out of a bad situation he created by calling a foul on the defense; etc. I'm not talking about swallowing the whistle completely, just exercising good judgement in the greay areas.
If a kid dunks and no one sees it - pass.
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Jeff Pearson
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