[Afrosheen]

It seems to me that you guys are all focusing on this specific play way too much and using words and clichés to sway the argument to your own biased point of view before even considering the play. As a 10 year official, it should be expected that your peripheral vision is at use, and that just because it's your secondary it doesn't prohibit you from taking action on a particular play.

So let me be real specific in regards to the play just to entertain this discussion, which really isn't the main point of the this read. And then I'll address each of the individual points thereafter.

First off, this was an AAU/club team fall league tournament. So the games kind of mattered for these guys. And as an assignor for the region these teams pretty much know me by now. But having said that I'm an assignor doesn't mean that I know better on all plays, so I'm here to learn as well.

Secondly, it was the first play out of a timeout. As Lead, I decided to play up as this defense likes to apply pressure and my partner has a reluctance at hustling and standing strong side on the sideline wouldn't look good. So if you were to draw this up in your head I was standing a little bit lower than where a Center would usually be standing opposite the Trail. If this was a Varsity game, I would have been standing below the baseline, strong-side. But given the type of game and my partner, I decided it would be prudent to stand table-side and start off the play as a pseudo-center.

The coach was standing a few feet up along the same sideline I was, around the 28' line on the same half I was standing.

Before the play resumed the defense was already up, one matchup was below the line from where I was standing. The offensive player or really the point guard needed to gain separation from his defender so he juked towards the basket and then backed up. As he backed up the pass was made as the defender was still recovering. The point guard's feet when he touched the ball was in the front court, but he definitely did not grab the ball with two hands until he was in the backcourt. Only the coach understood this as everyone thought that since the player was in the frontcourt where he initially touched the ball that even though he was in the backcourt when he caught it, it wasn't a backcourt violation.

Now if you've watched basketball enough, the play that I saw is easy to imagine. And since this was a youth level game there wasn't much in my area to watch coming out of a timeout. The point guard tried to get position with his arm outstretched as the target, but his teammate wasn't confident in passing it to him. So the PG decides to make a juke towards the basket but then back up to create space as the defender recovers. Now the PG as he backed up got the pass with his right hand but never caught it until going into the backcourt. The way he caught it was that he was backing up but when he touched the ball he turned his back to protect the ball. So imagining all that would be a quick jab towards the defender and the basket, sidestep back and essentially face your teammate who's throwing in the ball, touch the ball with one hand, turn your back to protect the ball as you catch it.

Standing where the Center usually stands made it easy to see this as the play was pretty much within my vision. The unfortunate part was how the play ended.

The way I saw it was that the offensive player touched the ball with his right hand as he approached the division line with his left foot in the frontcourt as he stepped his right foot in the backcourt, so when he lifted his left foot it looked like it was a backcourt violation, but his right foot was there in the backcourt before he possessed it. That right foot was clear as day as it was used to turn towards the basket and towards me and the coach.

The reason why I admitted to my doubt in this thread was because I thought you all would be able to understand this situation where you're never sure of a call in the absolute sense and when it comes to a call your partner made you always give your partner the benefit of the doubt. Instead I'm feeling like you guys want me to be wrong here so you load up your statements to make appear to be so even though you making it up along the way.

So when I went up to him, I already had the two scenarios in my mind. The coach was the only other person who made it evident that he knew the rule coupled with a plain view from his position, and since this is an AAU game in an empty gym his voice carried and it was clear everyone heard him say "he didn't gain possession until he was in the backcourt." To let such a play go without addressing it would be foolish. I had to go up to my partner, especially since I'm assigning these games. And even if, and as I did, allowed my partner's call to stand, I still would have the opportunity to go up to the coach and say, as I did, that I listened to what my partner had to say and I agreed with his call. And the coach for this game was satisfied with that as he gave me a thumbs up as I hustled back down to the other end. These are not varsity coaches and they understand how officiating at the AAU level works they just don't want to a possible correctable situation to be ignored.

The coach knew it was clearly a situation where his team did not gain possession until in the backcourt and from where I was standing that looked to be true. But I have a habit of inserting doubt even when it doesn't seem to look necessary, and in this case that doubt helped me give my partner the opportunity an out as I wanted to defend him. Unfortunately, I was working with a guy who has a chip on his shoulder and finds it offensive to question his authority even by someone who is assigns him youth level games.

When I went up to my partner I asked him first if the player gained control before going into the backcourt. He said yes. I then asked followed up by asking, "so he gained possession of the ball with one hand before catching it in the backcourt?"

Now given the feedback I got from you all in this thread, I should have approached him in a different way even though wording this was difficult as I didn't want to seem like I was overruling him. Unfortunately I wasn't able to escape what I feared, and my partner's response to the second question was that I was making it awkward and I should stop questioning his call.

Disclaimer: this official has a great bball IQ and during his first year and showed tremendous upside. Unfortunately something happened to him last year where he had a couple of no-shows and as a result of it, he started having a chip on his shoulder, gained weight, showed up late (even to this game), and wasn't willing to hustle as well as he used to. So I had a sympathetic heart and wanted to see him recover from where he was, so I understand why he was feeling defensive. And I unfortunately crossed a personal line of his.




As I stated, I apologized at the end of the quarter to him for how I crossed that line of his. And he admitted that he took it a bit personally. But I did also mention the principle that as an official that I lived by which was that as a crew we are obligated to make sure we get the call right and even though I may approach my partner under rare and certain circumstances, my intention is to never overrule my partner. It seemed everything was cool at that point as we shook hands and let that be.

Unfortunately that was not the case with the email that I received from him questioning me on the basis of the rules and how I'm not supposed to confer with my partner about his call. So I backtracked from the start and shared this to you all in this thread so that I could go through it step by step and see where my particular mistake was. Again, unfortunately, we couldn't step beyond the play and discuss on principle where and when we're supposed to confer on a call as a crew.