[MadCityRef]

From a fellow official...

Recently I worked with a 30 + yr official who is VERY weak in many parts of his game, calls all over the court, mechanics are "strange" and a lot of showboat mechanics...almost NO communication with his partners, not willing to listen to anyone, he never makes mistakes,.etc . We made him the R on the crew..not ONE word of pregame..which tells you how the game went...when we had double whistles, even if completely across court from him, he blew his whistle and he took it, calls completely across the paint, out of his area, right in front of partners, he rotates AWAY from strongside, (first time I have EVER seen that), and the list goes on and on.
Could have been a train wreck if I and our other partner weren't on the same page and able to overcome most of his goofiness, except...I am lead on a breakaway, defender blocks the ball, offensive player's momentum takes her out of bounds, she STEPS back in with one foot, CLEARLY INBOUNDS and grabs the ball right in front of me, and yes, he comes from midcourt, jumps all over the court waving his arms, gets on one knee to point over and back, and calls her out of bounds, blows his whistle, waves the other way and trots off into the sunset..!!!! RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.... right in front of me, MY CALL 100%, so not only is he out of his area totally, he is wrong, and he makes a fool of himself and us as a crew..and he is 100% wrong..no point in reversing it, only a min left, a 35 pt game...coach looks at me and goes wild...she asks "What is he doing? Not his call, you were right there, and she was inbounds?" I calm her down, tell her it is not worth fighting his error, it is a 35 pt game, etc...and she says "but he been doing that all game" and all I can do is nod my head and agree
A good partner? NO way...Were we a good crew? Not really..you are only as good as your weakest member...because it was a 35 pt game, it was not so crucial..could have been disaster...and he will continue to be assigned varsity games when he should not be just because he is a 30 yr official. Fortunately we still had a good game, because my partner and I were able to overcome Mr Showboat.....but an interesting night to say the least.....