Matthews,
Here is a little advice. One of the major things in officiating is politics. Once you become an official (or you may even know this as a scorer), you will realize this. You never what position another official or scorer might have, outside of that particular game. That official that you called an "idiot" could be an athletic director helping out or starting officiating and since you called him an idiot, he would NOT hire you, could be a varsity basketball coach doing soccer, in my area coaches usually book tourneys, and would proably blackball you for calling him that. In my area, there is a an official that the majority of us dislike. This individual has burned bridges w/ a lot of people, or vise versa. But, what most of the people who burn the bridges are unaware of, is this individual is a HUGE tournament director. It is better to be "friends" with everyone that you can. You don't have to necessarily do what they say, but be polite and hear them out.
Also, you said that you know "tons about basketball", this will get you jack, if you burn bridges with people. If we knew how little we really knew when we started officiating, we never would have stuck with it, I like that motto, and am now starting to comprehend it.
As a scorer, you are part of my team, you are as important if not more important than my crew. Without scorers, the game could not go! If you feel I have made a reporting mistake (NOT JUDGEMENT!), you let me know and we will talk it over and get it straightened out then, so we don't have to worry about correcting it (if it is a correctable error) later. YOu had the right idea, just be a little more sure of youself! You are part of the team, remember that, but NEVER appear cocky, arrogent, or act like you are all that and know everything there is to know about the sport. That is another way to burn a bridge and enter politics. who knows, that official you referred to as an idiot proably is, but degrading him during a game is in the rule book as something never should be done, especially by a scorer, tha is as bad as the other official calling his/her partner an idiot. politics is the downfall of many officials, you will find that as you move up, the political side increases also. from my expierence I have found that the more people you have on your side, the better.
Please don't take my post the wrong way, I think you will make a great official one day! and this forum is a valuable asset that I wish I knew about before or when I got started. Welcome to the world of officiating, you will find it to be a great one! Good luck, and have fun.
[Edited by Doug on Jan 13th, 2002 at 02:41 PM]