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BV game last night. First quarter. I'm center, right in front of home student section. Student section, at least at a glance, appears to be all-White. Both teams are mixed race. When visitor's point guard receives a pass in front of the student section (and me), I hear a fan behind me say: "Hey, orangutan man!"
My question is: what is the appropriate way to handle something like this? (What did I do? At the next dead ball, I went to the A.D. who was standing at that end of the court, told him what I heard, told him that I didn't know which student said it, asked him to handle it, and told him that if I heard anything more (that was derogatory) I'd clear out enough of the student section to be sure that the offender was among the departed. While we put the ball back in play, the A.D. did go over to the student section and my partners and I never heard anything else.)
Should I have blown my whistle immediately upon hearing the remark? That certainly would have drawn a lot of attention to it -- perhaps that's what was needed.... Should I have tried to find out (or had the A.D. find out) exactly who made the remark and not continued the game until that offender had been removed from the gym? Even though I had the situation "handled," how does the visiting team's point guard know that? Don't I owe him the knowledge that he will be protected, as best we can, by the officials? What if he (PG) didn't hear the original comment? Should I say something to visiting team's coach? Both coaches?
What I did, I think, was what drew the least amount of attention to the situation (and to us, as officials), without ignoring it. I imagine that there will be a variety of opinions on how to handle situations like this. I am looking for thoughtful opinions on how you might have handled it so that if I ever find myself in a similar situation, I might fulfill my responsibities even better.
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