Uh - not a three

[Mark Padgett]

Last Saturday was the final day of rec games for our local kids league. I had two boys games (a 6th and a 7th) with a young guy in his third year with us. During the 6th grade game, A1 inbounded along B's endline with team B pressing and A2, obviously confused, threw the ball into B's basket from the corner. My partner signaled a three!

I blew my whistle, went over to explain it and I asked him if he was aware that it was the wrong basket. He said he knew that but thought team B would get three points anyway. I went over the "it's not a try" explanation and he seemed to get it. Then I went over to the scorer's table to explain it there. Coach B came over and asked if they could please have the three points anyway because they hardly ever make any threes. He was smiling and when I told him no, he said, "Gosh darn it."

It also took some time to convince the scorer that no player got credit for the score but that he was just to put it in a footnote at the bottom of the page. Of course, he kept telling me that in the NBA, the closest player from the other team gets credit for the points. I told him that when he becomes a scorekeeper in the NBA, he can do that.

BTW - team A won in a rout and after the game, I told Coach B I was adding a point for them in the scorebook. He smiled and thanked me.