[theboys]

In all the years I have played, coached, and simply watched basketball, I have never seen a referee call a game a particular way due to race issues, regardless the color of the official or teams involved. I have friends who have claimed racism at various times. Sadly, I think it shows poorly on my friends rather than the officials.

Now, having said all that, a coach is a fool if he doesn't point out to his players an official who has a "pet peeve", as one of the other posters mentioned. We regularly have an official who is a stickler for FT lane violations. We've had another ref who is very tight with travel calls. We tell players not to make violations, but to be especially careful with particular referees, with particular situations. Same concept as playing baseball with umpires who have "different" strike zones.