My favorite "intentional foul" story happened to me right after the season started in 1999 when the POE was just issued. Late in a game, a team obviously was trying to foul and a player just came up to the dribbler and pushed him in the back. I called the intentional. There was a coach from a non-involved team sitting behind the bench of the team that committed the foul. He yelled at me for calling the foul as an intentional. He yelled that fouling at the end of the game was part of normal coaching strategy and there was no need to call those kinds of fouls intentional.
After I reported, there was a timeout. I intended to ignore him, but he wouldn't let up. Remember - this wasn't even his game. Finally, I told him it was a POE that year and that we were instructed to call it that way because it was the rule.
His reply - "But you don't have to ENFORCE IT!!!"
That cracked me up.
I should have pulled a Dave by giving him a rulebook and telling him to cross out all the rules he didn't want me to enforce in his next game.
Of course, giving him an actual rulebook probably would have scared him to death.
|