I think there's a basic principle, that if understood by officials and coaches, might do a lot to reduce the level of contentiousness between the two groups.
At a camp a long time ago, I was told the following:
There may be someone in the gym that knows more about the game of basketball than you do. After all, John Wooden or someone like that might be visiting.
But - there is no one there that knows better than you how that game, in that gym, on that day,
should be called.
I'm sure someday I'll run into a coach who knows more about the game than I do (of course, it would have to be John Wooden or maybe Jack Ramsey
), but I don't think I'll ever run into a coach that knows more than me about how a game
should be called. There's a big difference.
The next time a howler monkey tells you that "he's been coaching for 20 years", so he knows how a game should be called, pull this Davism out and tell him that you've been a passenger on airplanes for 20 years but that doesn't make you a pilot.
I know that difference - I just wish they did.
[Edited by Mark Padgett on Feb 1st, 2002 at 02:55 PM]