Last night, we lost a reasonably close game to a pretty good team in their gym. Of course I felt like many of the calls were going against us.
Late in the game, we had a player foul out. I used nearly the whole 30, giving instructions to my team. About a minute later, another player fouled out. Her fifth foul was in the backcourt, gambling for a steal as the score and time dictated. There was a crash, and she hopped up and walked away quickly, obviously frustrated but not commenting, looking back, stomping or anything like that. The calling official stared her down from the spot of the foul for a good 5-7 seconds while she walked away. This really ticked me off.
We are down to about 45 seconds left at this point. The other official informs me of the 30 seconds to sub, and this time I use almost all of it but just staring back out at the other official, not coaching. We go back out for the free throws, and after lining up but just before giving the ball to the shooter, I have my player call my last timeout. The reporting official is the staring guy. So I go up to him, tell him it's my last one and it's a full, and I ask him what have we done to deserve the attitude he's giving my team right now. He said, "no attitude, just trying to keep the game moving." I told him he was staring down our player and I didn't appreciate it. He said that I wasn't playing by the rules, which further irritated me. I asked what he meant, and he said that I was stalling and we both knew it. I agreed, and told him I wasn't breaking any rules. If he'd have said I was a jerk for stalling, I'd agree with that. But when he said I wasn't playing by the rules, well, that burns me up.
I guess I don't have a question. I'm coming to confessional to admit to the stalling (a jerk move I've never done before and I don't plan to repeat), especially since it was already 11:35 when I rolled into my house last night!
Oh wait, here is a question. Monday night we played the best team in our section. I noticed their best player has a tongue stud. Next time we play them, if right before the game I tell the official that #24 from the opponents has a tongue stud in, what do you think they will do?