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Sounds like....
....some of the people I've worked with.
They judge success based on the number of double-whistles they have on the floor.
There are a lot of times when players are near the line dividing the court responsibilities and when both officials see a foul. What is wrong with both whistles as long as the right official (pregamed usually as the official in the direction the players are heading) takes the foul to the table as the other official drops his fist?
Another instance where I see double whistles is when a player drives the lane. While this is the lead's primary area, the trail may have a better angle on contact out front -- especially if the drive starts from the trail's side of the court. Since most of the off-ball activity is going to be in that area anyway, the trail's eyes are there.
Are we just supposed to ignore legitimate fouls based on lines drawn on the court?
I stress being a good off-ball official during my pregames, especially working with a new partner, but there are simply times where we need to work as a team and help each other out. If I miss something blatant, I'm not going to get upset when my partner bails me out. I may even thank him.
The only time I get angry is when I make a conscious advantage/disadvantage decision to not call a foul (for example -- a bump in the back on a rebound where the player in position clears the rebound) and my partner makes a long distance call. That happened last week when the two players were about eight feet from me and my partner was at least 40 feet away. The discussion at halftime was cordial, and I made it clear that I wasn't upset that he called a foul (new guys seem hesitant to blow the whistle, so I don't want a partner to be afraid to call fouls), but rather to consider the advantage/disadvantage and to hold his whistle for a bit. OK, so I did mention that I was right there, but I'm only human....
Rich
[Edited by Rich Fronheiser on Dec 18th, 2002 at 08:30 AM]
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