Staying In Our Primary

[BryanV21]

During my crew's post-game the other night my partner wasn't happy that I'd called a foul in his PCA.

What happened was I was the lead during the play, and a player for Team A had the ball on the opposite post and was looking to go up for a shot. There was no match-up on the post on my side of the lane, and I didn't want to rotate to the other side as I thought it was too late and could lead to problems should a rebound by the defense turn into a fast-break going the other way.

Anyway, I see the player attempt a shot on the opposite post and get fouled. I wait a tick, my partner has nothing, so I blow my whistle and call a foul.

Now... it wasn't in my PCA. However, I'm positive the player was fouled. I did what I thought was right and gave my partner the first shot at the foul, before calling it myself.

During the post-game my partner was a little upset, and went on to say that one assignor told him "I'd rather you miss a call than call something out of your primary." Yes, my partner said that was verbatim from the assignor.

I have a big problem with that mentality. My job, and the job of officials, is to make the game fair. And by passing on a call that we know is right, just because it's a little outside our own PCA, seems ridiculous. It sounds like the assignor doesn't want to make the other official look bad, meaning he's putting our egos ahead of the game.

Does that sound right to you?