[JRutledge]

Showing disrespect to a person that I do not know to me would be calling someone out of their name, sterotyping them without knowing anything about them. This was not the case.

For those that think I have a chip on my shoulder about this. This is why it came to this conversation.

I called a lane violation on this kid in the first quarter. It was so obvious, he was the only person in the lane and no one else moved until the ball hit the rim. Then after two of my partners called a "carry" on him, well I called one on him last. He did a jump hesitation move that the NF shows is illegal on their rules tape. He did the same thing and complained immediately about the call.

I will make it clear that I am an African-American official and this kid was African-American or Black depending on your political correctness. What I have found when I officiate Black kids or have Black coaches (and this coach was not Black BTW) tend to see so many white officials or do not see many Black officials, that they assume that for some reason they can approach me or say what they want. It usually means that the "Black" teams treat me much worse than the all white teams ever have. I guess they think that the white officials are usually screwing them and when they see me it will be different. But I do not care about any of that during the game and call what I see and what happens. For some reason kids of other backgrounds do not even try to approach me in that fashion. I really do not know why, it just seems that way. And I was the youngest official on the court too, and I probably look much more like their peer than anyone else on the court, this kid made several comments to me. He did not do this to the other officials (that I could see), but happen to do it with me. I have no explaination for this other than what I said.

Well, I had an out of bounds after he again said something about a call I made. If I remember it correctly, he wanted me to call a foul on a shot that basically he took in a crowd. Well what usually happens and the ball got knocked out of his hands but he got the ball back. He was the player that was taking the ball out so I decided to talk to him quietly and not make a scene or show this player up. This kid is a very good athlete and has many college offers on the table. But this kid is so good that he wants to play baseball wherever he goes to college. And I know this so I want to give him the opportunity to change his behavior without me just blowing my whistle. Well I failed miserably and he did not take what I said to him very well. And all that I told him that I have told other players that are getting out of hand, that he needs to stop complaining about every single call. That is going to cause him more problems if his behavior continues and that he needs to show more "respect." Well he claimed that I was not showing him any respect even though I did not raise my voice and not a sole could hear a word I said but him because he was a little taller than me and I was basically right by his ear.

Well, after that did not work I addressed the issue with the coach. We did not have another problem the rest of the game after my comments to the coach. But I will also say that I feel that the kids tried to mirror the attitude of their coach. The coach complained about every single call, to the point that one of my partners had to basically tell him, "enough is enough" in an unrelated conversation with the coach. I do not know if my conversation or my partner's conversation did the trick, but either way it worked and the kids and the coach shut up.

I definitely did not read the situation the way I should have. And that I probably should have just addressed the coach in this situation. But I do not see what a "chip" had to do with this. But then again, some here are truly twisted in their thinking about everything I say. But to each his own.

Peace