[bainsey]

My rookie year, I took a bunch of YMCA games in trade for a family membership. These were mostly spring high-school age boys' games.

The Y staff repeatedly told the kids to stop dunking in pre-game. I asked the league head, why not just T them up?

"Oh no!" he replied. "We don't want to go THAT far!"

"They'll never stop until you penalize them," I reminded them.

"Yeah, but..."

Fast forward to the championship game, which I'm working. One kid tried to dunk in pre-game (missed), and held the rim. I called the T.

The result was what I expected: No-one got mad at me, but everyone yelled at the kid! (He was a fun kid who was a frequent target for abuse.) We started the game with free throws and the ball at the division line. No big deal.

Actually, the one person who made it a big deal was the 18-year-old who was supposed to be my partner. He was so disgusted with my call (this was a kid who openly admitted he "hated to call fouls"), that he feigned an injury just to get out of working with me! We found a quick replacement, who was better qualified, anyway.