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I think everyone's made good points in this discussion and the main thing is that politics is certainly a factor, but a minimal factor. After all, the assignors have to deal with any problems that arise out of games and they're not gonna put someone on a game that they think may cause a problem. I think politics plays a larger role for the older officials on the way out than the young people coming up, and a lot of that has to do with the familiarity and game management skills that the older guys bring.
As for getting the better games, I am currently in 3 associations and I am getting a full varsity schedule this year, my 3rd year. After 1.5 years, I was lucky enough to get decent varsity action, mainly because I worked games every day and was available at the last minute for a rivalry game when someone went down. I have a tape of that game, and although at the time I thought I did great, with another year and close to 250 games more experience, I realize how much better I could have done. I still review that game tape if I think I'm getting too big of an ego, and although I certainly didn't call a bad game even a year's experience makes me question some "quality of calls" issues as well as game management.
There are several reasons, from my perspective, why assignors do things the way they do them. Getting a bunch of JV games doesn't necessarily mean you're not a varsity quality official. A former D1 ref who I worked with who still works the big time HS games here made a big impact on me when he told me that "JV games are great because they teach you how to be the man. If you're working varsity you're generally with a horse who can make anything run smoothly, but in JV games you learn to take charge and manage situations." Officiating basketball is more than simply calling the game and the big time referees have all the other factors that the rest of us need to work on before we get those games. A lot of guys phone in the lower level games and the rec league stuff and waste a great chance to improve. I tend to think of assignors as basically the coach of a team, ideally putting officials in situations to improve, but the officials need to make the effort to do that. It is my belief that when I'm good enough to do the marquee games, I will be doing them.
Of course politics plays some role in everything and getting to know the assignor and the senior guys in the association is huge. But doing so, watching a lot of games, HS and college and talking to the vets I think helps you grow as an official as well. JMHO.
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