[mick]

Originally posted by Marty Rogers
Yeah, if anyone knew the rule, the whole crew looks bad. But what are the chances?


This attitude is one of my pet peeves of officiating (basketball and baseball). Just because 90% of the people don't know the correct ruling, doesn't make it OK to get the call wrong. This only makes situations more difficult in future games, when officials make the CORRECT calls.
A typical comment might be, "Last week JoeRef called that a bakcourt violation. Hey, that's backcourt! Don't you know the rule?"

A responsibility of being an official is calling the game to the best of your ability. Being as fair as possible to each team, and following the rules is our way of respecting the game. I'm not saying we don't make mistakes, as I have over the years, but our actions are TEACHING everyone (players, coaches, fans) what is legal and illegal in the game. We've got to get these basic calls right. IMO

Marty,
While reffing a game, and with an audience of 50 to 500 people, it certainly does give us a wonderful opportunity to display our knowledge of the rules.

What a platform we are provided!

Our partner calls a travel on a great jump stop and we go down to them waving off his call a loudly proclaim the correct rule and application.

Our partner calls a block on a perfectly vertical defender and we go down to them waving off his call a loudly proclaim the correct rule and application.

Our partner calls traveling on a throw-in and we go down to them waving off his call a loudly proclaim the correct rule and application.

Our partner goes to the wrong side of the floor for a free-throw and we go down to them waving off his call a loudly proclaim the correct rule and application.

Yessiree! We proclaim the screw up and we're looking pretty smart out there. Trouble is next game our partners don't show up.

It's yer call. It's yer opinion.

mick