[Goose]

Some of us older guys have suffered the pains of the mistakes I have seen in this thread. I will say that with a little word spoken here and there, one can prevent or at least give one an out if a player commits one of these acts.

Inbounding with pressure:

I always inform the player if it is a spot throw-in or if he has the baseline to run. For the defensive player applying pressure, I always tell him or her not to reach over, i.e. break the plane. Now, if either violates, I feel I have done my part in attempting to prevent an unwanted violation by either team.

Shirt pulling:

This is a pet peeve of mine, especially in close games with under a minute to play. Not that I won't call it earlier, but just that this is when it usually occurs. If I am the non inbounding official, I always approach the lineup and verbally state, "do not hold or pull a players shirt." Again, if a player then proceeds to pull a shirt as his player is coming off a pick for example, I feel perfectly justified in awarding an intentional foul since there was no intent whatsoever to make a play for the ball.

If the coach goes ballistic, at least I can tell him I warned the players against pulling or grabbing anothers shirt.

One thing though, and that is I have to see the shirt pulled away from the body, and I'm sure all of us have seen the jersey get pulled clearly away from the body. In other words, everyone that is near me will see the same thing.

I would also agree that in the near future, something will be done, because it needs to be done, concerning un-intentional fouls at the end of a game to merely stop the clock and put the team at the line. Clearly, many of these fouls should be intentional, but I've not met many that would or do call it that way including myself. I often wonder why we as officials do not call more of these types of fouls intentional instead of just common fouls when it is clear they are indeed intentional. Many don't even involve a player with the ball either. Oh well, more rambling.

Again, some of these things can be prevented, and some can not, but for me, it's easier to sell the call if I tell the coach that the player(s) were warned previously.

What bothers me more are these interpretaions by assignors who BTW, usually work for the coaches even though many were officials at one time. When these people work for the coaches, what does one expect? The coaches will tell them how they want the games called, which in my opinion, is generally bad for the game.


goose