Big Baller Forfeits
 

LaVar Ball pulls Big Ballers AAU team off court after receiving technical foul

Good riddance.

1. That looks like a holding foul to me.
2. I will henceforth refer to him as Big Cry Baby.
3. Who is cheating?
4. The irony of the article's final quote is truly wonderful given the incorrect grammar used by the one making the critical statement.
5. The Lakers don't believe that this clown is going to be a problem?

Great example of why not to work this BS.

He's an idiot. Ignore him and he'll go away.

Unfortunately, he won't. :(

Well Played Nevadaref ...
 

It took me a while, but I finally got it. Back in the mid-twentieth century, "balling" was a slang term for crying ("Quit your balling"). I wonder if LaVar Ball is old enough to realize that?

And 1.....
And 1.....
And 1.....

I don't see that in the rulebook!

This can only get worse.
He already had his fame and now its all about him, or had it always been that way?

Are you referring to how officials should handle him? Because in summer ball (which I hardly work any of) especially I guarantee you that I am NOT ignoring him, and if the tournament director wants to chew my ass for it, they can find another official.

Maybe this was a camp for the officials, I don't know. But I wouldn't tolerate that BS in a high school game, there's not a chance I'm tolerating it for the pennies we make in AAU.

The moral of the story is don't do AAU. He's high profile idiot. There are many more. There's no penalty for being an idiot there. The directors care about their tournament and view referees as a dime a dozen.

Of course, if referees and assigners would stop selling out to the TDs for money, maybe, just maybe, they would view us as more than "a dime a dozen" and stop pandering to coaches who "paid to be there." On the flip side, I can't really hold it against officials who want to make money; I'm just not willing to work 2-man (typically what off-season ball is around here) for pocket change while being expected to put up with all the nonsense. And in my experience, most good referees aren't either.

I think it depends on who is running the tournament and who is assigning the tournament. I just worked a tournament where it was a camp and we were told to handle our business. The officiating was looked at as an asset and not a liability. There are more than enough tournaments where they can worry about where the officiating is coming from. But the reality is it only as good as you want it to be. You only do not respect the officials, it gets around. Even in the large area I live there are officials that refuse to work games in AAU (including myself) without some backing and support by the people assigning.

Peace

I agree that a lot of it depends on who the assigner or TD is, but the reality is there are too many assigners and TDs whose philosophy is "don't rock the boat" to keep the assigning gig/keep teams with s*ithead "coaches" coming back and paying.

I do think you'd agree with me that a camp setting is often different from a non-camp setting. The camp directors want the games officiated like sanctioned games in order to best evaluate the campers, so they make that clear to the TD up front that they will be taking care of business if necessary. Of course, plenty of camp directors are spineless and will tell their campers to pander to the coaches. Ironically, the camps I've been to where the latter has been the case have more often been high school team camps vs. AAU-type events. But the high school camps have real coaches who answer to an AD/principal and thus you seldom run into issues, anyway.

I mean exactly what I said. People need to ignore him. Don't put him on TV. Don't post about him on the Internet.

If people like ESPN would ignore him and stop putting him on TV, he would go away. Don't give him an audience.

Really? I cannot imagine many camp directors giving this instruction. Never seen it personally in the ~20 camps I've been to in the last 5 years.

Like you are doing right now? :D

Yes really. It may not be the norm, but it happens. Just last summer I went to a required camp for the SCHSL. One of the first things the head clinician said was "they don't want us to eject coaches." He told us just to keep calling technical fouls until the coach shuts up. Well, in my second game we have a PITA coach who gets a T. I go over and remind him that he has to sit by rule (we were never told there was no seatbelt rule for the camp). He keeps refusing, so I whack him, and then out of nowhere one of the camp directors chews my ass and tells me to rescind it. The head clinician doesn't back me up; in front of the entire gym he spinelessly tells me to "do what he said." We get through the game and I tell the clinician to give me my money back if he doesn't want me to be there. He somewhat apologized and took responsibility, but I will never go back to his camp and tell officials that story whenever they ask me about my review of the camp.

I'm paying money to be there. I'm not going to subject myself to that BS. Again, certainly not the norm for camps, but it absolutely happens.

Damn. I assume the SCHSL is for high school right? I should say I cannot imagine a college camp director or clinicians doing something like that. Sorry you had to deal with that!

Yes, we have to go to camp once every three years or sacrifice five rating points in SC. And yes, you're probably right about the college/HS distinction.

I like the part when Ball curses ("I don't play that s---.") but yet a few sentences later, the article references when he said "You gotta use cuss words when you don't have no intellect."

Hypocritical and uses a double negative when discussing intellect...classic!

Billy, please look up 'bawling' in your Funk & Wagnalls.

In this day and age.......it'll never happen. His 15 minutes of fame is going to last longer than most, and for what?

It's a sad testament to our society unfortunately.

Been There ...
 

Fun With Homophones ...
 

That's funny, I thought they were still using the ol' hornbook primer up there in Connecticut. :p

AAU usually has a dress code for coaches. There definitely was not one for this game, so I'm not sure this was an AAU event.

And the President would stop tweeting if we all stopped listening to the media talk about his tweets.

In other words, good theoretical advice, but not realistic.

Lavar is here to stay in our lives until he or someone in his family has a complete meltdown or fall from grace. That's why we pay attention.....because it's inevitable and deep down inside, we all want to witness it when it happens.


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I'm as guilty as anyone of using the blanket term "AAU" to refer to any non-interscholastic travel ball.

I don't expect them to either. That's why I said if they would.

I'm ignoring him. I'm not the least bit interested in watching whatever is in the video.

I will say it this way. Officials talk. When a tournament or a certain tournament becomes a certain kind of where it is a cluster, then the word gets around. And one thing I always notice is that a certain level of official stops doing these games anyway. Guys that have accomplished some stuff, usually leave these games alone anyway. There are always going to be the money official that will do multiple games so they can get a few hundred dollars, but they will not necessarily get the quality. But these tournaments are not going away. And that attitude is not going away. But the tournament I worked it was clear the TD or organizer was not worried about what the coaches felt when the officials in question were better than they could normally get in that situation. And this tournament was with teams from all the different factions of AAU (Nike, Adidas, UnderArmor) that hardly ever play each other.

Peace

It's a foul. It also opened up to the center. I would've whacked him quicker.

Shit, if I knew whacking him was going to get them to quit, I would've done it sooner. :D

AAU has become slang for most non-scholastic off-season games such as this tournament was.

That is very true because teams that play AAU do not only play in actual AAU tournaments. Which is why you have some different rules or different standards for who is playing in the tournaments.

Peace

He maybe in your life. He's not in mine. I don't read anything he says. I don't watch him. I didn't even look at this video. So, it's a choice.

I've made mine.

WOW

Can't believe you are in the state pen for killing someone after that experience.

A bad experience and one I share with other people, but not something that's ever kept me up at night. When we cross paths I'm cordial.

Ironically, the rumor was that the camp was a train wreck this summer.

Exactly. I don't read what this idiot says, I don't watch what he does. Encouraging others to do the same.

If you can't see the difference, perhaps you're no smarter than he is.

Perhaps I'm not :(

While he said all of this while commenting on something he does not pay attention to. I would take it for what it is worth. Most basketball or sports fans know when certain things are going on outside the game on some level. It does not mean you are obsessed with the topic.

Peace

New situation today: Female referee removed after LaVar Ball threatens to pull his AAU team off court

Apparently the Court Club Camp is running in Vegas and one of the campers whacked LaVar and he forced her to get removed. I'm surprised Ed didn't pull all his refs off the floor for the tournament bending to that shit. And then he got whacked by the replacement guy! That's being a good partner right there. :D

This is the story that I saw. The guy stole my Cry Baby line from a few days ago with his #BigCryBaby. I still like BigBawler!

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/lavar-b...160917511.html

For the record, I have officiated the LV BigTime and the Adidas Super64 in the past. These tourneys change names over the years, but it's still the same deal. These are AAU events in Vegas with the top HS players held during one of the sanctioned NCAA evaluation period for all the major college coaches.
The level of play is darn good. Some of the coaches, players, and fans can be a challenge to handle. Personally, I had a few Ts, but no ejections over the years. Although, I witnessed a few warranted ejections.
I've done these games in both a camp situation as well as non-camp for pay.
I do think that it is difficult for the female officials in the camp situations to be put into these games because the vast majority of them work girls HS or women's JC/D2 and don't see the athleticism or level of physical contact that these boys exhibit. I've seen several coaches and players become frustrated with whistles that are tighter than what they are accustomed to having, but never had anyone be a complete @ss about it.
Btw the reverse is true for me. When I'm asked to work a GV/BV HS double-header, I have to make a conscious effort to evaluate contact at an appropriate level for the girls contest. I have made the mistake of letting GV games be too physical and had some unhappy coaches/players.

Decided to post the last few paragraphs of the article for everyone on the forum.
The word is getting out that Lavar is the problem.
=================

"It’s unclear if Ball’s complaints are valid, or if they’re completely unfounded. But his history suggests that most of the fault here lies with him, and not the referee. Plus, even if the game was officiated poorly, it doesn’t at all excuse his behavior.

Last weekend, the Big Ballers forfeited a game they were winning in the second half when LaVar forced his players to pack up their bags in the middle of the game and leave the gym.

On Friday, he halted a game and forced Adidas — a massive company with control of this entire AAU event — to give into his demands and replace a referee in the middle of a game. That’s unheard of it. And it’s ridiculous.

Why any kid would want to play for LaVar’s AAU team is a mystery. It’s clearly not helping their development as basketball players. And they can’t enjoy having their games ruined by a coach who can’t keep his mouth shut. Whether there is any fallout from this mess remains to be seen."

The plot thickens. 100 bucks says Ed Rush is the "source".

Adidas officials pressure referees to avoid calling technical fouls on LaVar Ball

I have two questions about the other game officials: (1) Typically, after a technical foul is called, the calling official will go report the foul and get out of the way so that if a coach (or player) does something that warrants a second technical foul, it is not the same official who is forced to call it. Here, the calling official did that and a different official came over to deal with Ball. The second official seems very patient and is motioning for Ball to head to his bench and have a seat. My question is: given Ball's conduct *after* the first technical was called, do others think Ball deserved a second T? (I recognize that, later in that game, Ball did get a second T - I'm just asking about what is on video in the immediate aftermath of the first call.) (2) I'd like to believe that if I was on the crew with the woman who called the technical, I'd have told the organizers that whether to replace the officiating crew is their call, but they would have to replace the entire crew and not just one official. Do others agree/disagree?

1. I'm guessing he wanted to keep him there at the request of Adidas. When he pointed at the new Lead and kept going I think the C should've hit him again. However I don't disagree with trying to talk him down as the standard "Not now" coach isn't going to work with him.

2. Having been in a camp with a similar situation (they replaced all 3 of us at the coach's request), I would've left the game if they chose to pull one. I was furious when we were removed and the clinician said "Well, I don't know why y'all were changed, they just asked us to do it". No way in hell I'd let the management run-off a partner on the orders of a coach.

Being good partners would've meant walking off with that female official.

If this is a legit game where I know my decisions will be enforced by game administration I am hitting the coach about 5 seconds after the first tech. Coach CANNOT be on the floor walking around after receiving a technical foul.

I'm not going to fault the other two crew members for not walking off the court with the female. This was obviously a prestigious camp that they paid a lot of money to be at, and if the clinicians tell you to work, you work. Now, whether the clinicians should have pulled their other guys off and stood up more fervently to the money-hungry organizers, that's a different argument.

But if I'm on this crew there is ZERO chance I stay on the court. Zero.

Classic example of clinicians wanting to make sure they get to come back the next year and collect another check rather than having the balls to put their foot down.

This ^^

+1

I call advantage / disadvantage. I don't call every bump as some girls officials do. Couldn't care less if coaches and players are unhappy.

She's a D1 official. She can work a game like this 7 days a week.

The whole thing is shameful. At the camp where I was a clinician this past weekend, a coach like this would've been sent home.

Part III: The Saga Continues

Two women part of referee crew in Big Baller Brand game at Adidas Uprising Summer Championships

Found video of the first game mentioned in the article, refereed by the D1 lady.

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a2uIsG-o4xI?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Watched a few mins of the video. Noticed some things I think ppl can learn from:

0:50, as the administering referee you HAVE to catch the players on the right that have crossed legs. This is also U2's responsibility. Hitting the whistle and coming in as U2 is totally acceptable and important for starting the game off the right way. R should have caught it first though.

1:10, two possessions in and we already have an official bailing on the rebounding action. Rebounding action is best officiated from Slot and Trail who have the best angles. Trail has to stay engaged to the rebounding action instead of bailing the other way to cover the 1 player leaking out. First responsibility is rebounding, then get where you need to be to referee fast break.

1:10, INC Slot. Blue #3 holds his opponent across the arm while contesting for the rebounding. Slot has the A look at this play, Trail has the B look (but he bailed and can't help). This miss then results in Lead having an IC on the player who got fouled! Need to be strong from Slot and come get this play to help out your Lead.

2:16, INC Trail. Extremely tough play to detect, and thus not downgrading the crew for missing this. Blue #10 clamps his opponent's arm restricting his ability to jump. Lead has no look, Slot has no look, Trail could have taken a step away from the sideline towards the middle of the court to have the A look and referee where his partners can't.

3:17, INC Trail. It's early in the game, could have gotten some easy rebounding cleanup fouls here on either player. They get one chance at contesting the rebound, if they want to camp there and keep swiping it's any easy foul to get and will clean up your game. Trail calls one late as the player breaks the pressure but should have gotten one earlier IMO.

3:48 and 3:56, CNC crew. Excellent job officiating the defense and refereeing offense initiated contact. I see a lot of fouls called on this type of play, especially from Trail where it looks most ugly. And good job matching up similar-ish plays on back to back plays. In the 2nd play the defender wasn't legal but offense initiated the contact which was incidental.

4:43, not the way to come give information. I would have liked an armbar foul on #4 blue during the full-court drive but a no call here is standard for this type of game. Given no foul call from Slot, Lead correctly had the ball last touching the offensive player. Then Slot decides to come (halfway) with information changing the call. This looks terrible. First off, he's wrong. Second, he only goes halfway instead of going all the way to his partner. Third, it is early in the game and everyone accepted the call with minimal protestation. Not the time to waste a correction IMO, unless extremely obvious which this was not. If no one is asking for a change, don't go. Corrections are for those plays that EVERYONE knows are wrong. And by the time the correction is made all the players are on the other end of the court. Looks bad.

I watched the first 8 minutes of the contest to which another poster provided the video below. I thought that she was doing a nice job. The couple of things which I would criticize were both done by her male crew members.

In fact, she makes a crew saving call for the first FTs of the game as C after a goofy rotation situation with a steal on the other end leads to a 1v1 run-out while the crew is poorly positioned.

After that I didn't need to see any more. Lavar is a fool.

I don't agree with your first comment as the players look to be more than three feet away from the center circle to me. They are therefore in legal positions.
I agree 100% with your critique about changing the OOB call. It was incorrect and done poorly.

Lastly, did you notice that the floor was basically an NBA court with the HS 3pt line added? They did not alter the NBA FT lane width.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iMQKlSXEd1I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

LaVar Ball Gets Ref Replaced Mid-Game After She Gave Him Technical | Bleacher Report

Why anyone would want to officiate this blovated bovines games are beyond me.

Probably not the politically correct thing to say, but I'd love to have this a*shole in a real high school game. He wouldn't make it longer than five minutes on my court.

I agree. But the real ones to blame are the spineless organizers. Big problem with society is lack of spines. This sets an awful precedent. I have refused to work specific tournaments because of who is organizing or assigning, and I have left mid game when tourney organizers do shit ass stupid things like this. Officials, as a whole, preach to do the right thing and take care of business, except often times when it comes to how they handle their own "business".

Agreed 100%. And the few that do the right thing by sticking up for themselves and/or their partners are accused (often by other officials) of "making it about themselves" or not "doing it for the kids" or some other ridiculous holier-than-thou accusation. Officials like that that are willing to sell their souls to greedy organizers for a trivial amount of pocket change make it hard on those of us that actually have spines.

Female official works LaVar Ball AAU game in solidarity with removed official

even more of this shithead

I said on a FB site that if this was my game, I would have walked off. The fact that it is a camp might have changed my mind a little because you are kind of at the mercy of the camp at that point. I would only walked off for sure if I was being paid to work the games and nothing else. The fact this is a camp changes that fact. But then he would not have had many chances to be disrespectful at all and he would be gone. After all that is what they tell us to do right? Do not let the first T'ing official call the second one. And I would have been embolden if I knew she was a D1 official on top of that, because she is at least at top level with that kind of pressure.

The bottom line, these AAU tournaments are a joke and this is why.

Peace

59:18 mark in the video from the Wednesday game is when he gets the T. You don't see it but you do hear the whistle and a kid reacts walking away. Announcers verify it was a T about 10 seconds later with about a minute of Ball chattering to the other ref and then what appears to be trying to get a final word in with the calling official as he eyes her all the way across the court.

Bottom line - no person is bigger than the game, and especially, the integrity of it. . .

Adidas (who made the decision) to pull the ref off - the only thing they accomplished with this is showing how they care more about getting a player signed for their brand than the integrity of the sport in general. . .

Not to mention the fact that it just showcases misogyny to an entirely different level. . .

What's really pathetic is that his next game, they were going to do 2 women officials and 1 male, but Adidas wouldn't allow it, so they did 2 males and 1 woman. . .

That being said, I will NEVER work an Adidas-brand tournament ever. They put their own self interests for one team and the hope they can get an endorsement for a player over the sport entirely. . .

Plus I am never going to buy their stuff and only bad mouth them from here on.

I totally agree with the sentiment. But I put this more on the tournament people, not so much the overall company. But that being said, they will not get my main business for sure, but that was nothing new anyway. Sad this even came to this, but when you let guys like this run things, you might get burnt in the long run.

Peace

Officiating group terminating relationship with Adidas over replacement of female referee

Good for Court Club, but there will be plenty of takers willing to take their place and sell their souls to Adidas.

+1

Correct on this. They may not have thought to do it in the moment so some allowance can be made for the two of them. But they would have scored points with the clinicians had they done so.

The situations where it's needed to stick up for a fellow official can take many different forms. Both on and off the court. Recognizing those situations and then following through by standing up for a fellow official is important not only for the official you're standing up for but for officiating as a whole.

In our world, there are always whores who are willing to take that assignment no matter the cost. The $25 or $30 means more to them.

Not being there, I don't think we can say that. Who knows what those clinicians told them to do. I'd like to think the clinicians themselves would pull the crew from the court with what happened, but they didn't.

Who is the sponsor for this coach's team? Anybody know?
It's his own "brand" that's funding it, isn't it?

Now we see Adidas caving to the bad press on this with the obligatory "we're sorry for our mistake."

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/wrong-d...161051463.html

Want to demonstrate something significant?--Don't have his team back for next Summer's event.

I wonder if the new action by Adidas is because they will be in trouble with the quality of the officials if Court Club pulls out. Yes they might get officials, but they will not likely get D1 or top up and coming officials.

Peace

I think this is nothing but a corporate "mea culpa", trying to safe face, and not having any negative backlash affect their bottom line. I think they have proven that when it comes to officials, it's not exactly a high priority of theirs.

I doubt they give a shit about having quality officials. They just want warm bodies who will show up and not cause problems like this.

They will if programs stop paying/participating because the quality of officiating isn't on par with the level of play. Nike's EYBL has 5 stops and at least 2, maybe 3, of them utilize officials from D1 camps.

You would be surprised. There are tournaments like these that care very much about the officiating and so much that is why they have associations with organizations or supervisors like Court Club. Officiating is often a complaint when these teams claim they pay thousands of dollars to attend tournaments and then you have some JV official calling their games from the local association. It is a much better draw to say you have college officials or D1 officials working your games and why when you see these very high profile tournaments, you see top level officials working those games. Even the EYBL Girl's stuff we did in Chicago for years was assigned to certain officials, not just a guy or gal that never worked the playoffs or college ball. That is one of the reasons I was drawn to work the tournament. And this year was the first time they had a D1 camp which even that adds credibility to the tournament as to who is working the games. Because remember this story got big when Court Club pulled out.

Peace

At 53 seconds or so on this video, one of the officials walks over to a player (presumably to tell him to keep the water off the court or to tuck in his shirt) and to get his attention, he taps him on the back a couple times. The player responds by swatting the officials hand away.

Anyway, it was a weird situation within a larger situation. A good example of why you should try to avoid contact with the players, even if it's intended as harmless.

Yes, that's Lavar's son.

Wtf, from that angle it looks like the ref grabs/pats the players butt. What a dumazz, don't touch players.

^^This

The teams don't care either. Ninety-five percent of the clowns coaching these teams and the parents shuffling their players through the old AAU factory wouldn't know good officiating from a bullet to the head.

Most would rather have their games worked by overwhelmed patsies they can walk over versus competent officials who enforce the rules and penalize poor sportsmanship.

In summer ball, the inmates run the asylum (yes, there are the usual {very few} exceptions) and that's never going to change.

The eternal cry, "Come on, man, this is AAU" roughly translates to: "Can you pleeease just let us get away with things we would not ever get away with for even one second if we were actual coaches of real teams or players participating in high school/college games!"

So, for those of you who do those club tournaments that aren't associated with a referee camp, do you call the games differently? My perception as a parent having sat through many of them is that referees have a much higher foul threshold in those tournaments than in HS games. Perhaps because they are jamming a game into 70 minutes and it won't happen if they actually call the fouls that happen?

(I'm lucky that my son plays for a club that is more focused on teaching the kids than yelling at the refs (or yelling at the kids), but -- wow -- do I find myself seeing many other teams thinking, "no way would I let my kid play for a coach like that!")

Excellent observation.
If a tournament is going to have stop-clock games in a tight schedule and pay the refs roughly half of what the HS regular season fee is, then don't be surprised if the officials do about half of the work, or even as little as possible. Fewer whistles means games finish more quickly and as the officials are paid by the game, not the hour, they don't want to be out there any longer than they must.

You may now ask why doesn't that happen during regular HS games. The answer is that it does. It is only controlled by the amount of oversight directed to the officials. Normal HS generally has more observers, ADs, assignors, etc. than Summer AAU tournaments. This is one reason the high-profile Summer events like having the referee camps provide officials--oversight and observation of the officials. If they are being evaluated for future work, they won't slack off and a decent product results. I suspect the other reason is that the overall expense to the tournament organizers for the camp administrators/observers is cheaper than just paying the officials outright, plus it creates a layer of accountability. Now people of being paid to look at the quality of the officials working the games instead of just working the games. How do they afford that? Not only are the refs not being paid, but they are actually paying for this oversight!

Absolutely. But not just for the reasons Nevadaref laid out regarding unreasonable game windows and paltry pay.

The coaches don't want the games called properly, and/or "tight." "This is AAU, man. You're gonna call THAT?!" I'm not sure what that means, since I would think the purpose of these games would be to prepare them for scholastic/collegiate basketball (aka "the real world"), while this philosophy achieves the exact opposite.

But because 95 percent of tournament hosts/site administrators won't support the ejection of paying fans and coaches, regardless of their level of civility, you do what you can to keep the games humming so the next batch of nutjobs can assume the court.

One technical to a coach who is likely long overdue for one is fine, and sometimes achieves the desired result. But a second is pointless, because you'll almost never have the site support to follow through with the penalty. And any AAU coach worth his backpack, slides and bluetooth will NEVER leave the confines when instructed to.

Coaches and fans generally lose their minds even more when their games are covered by officiating camps, because the games are officiated as they're supposed to be, and for whatever reason, nobody on the AAU circuit seems interested in that.

I always explain it to the layperson this way: If sanctioned high school/prep/college competition is a 95-100 on the "This is Basketball" scale with respect to rules, infrastructure and environment, AAU is like a 65.

Perhaps the statement about coaches being attracted to tournaments that have high-level officials is true in a few cases, but in my experience most of these club/travel/AAU "coaches" (heck, even plenty of real high school coaches) have not the slightest idea what good officiating is.

Sure, part of an organizer's advertising might include a statement such as "all games officiated by Division 1 officials," which would attract some teams, but once you get to the court, most of these "coaches" don't care what level you officiate; in fact, the more you call the game like a sanctioned high school or college game, the more idiotic they act in many cases. And then when you take care of business as would be expected in a high school or college game, all hell breaks loose because you had the gall to actually stand up to these morons for acting the fool. And then situations such as the one in Las Vegas occur because keeping the teams happy is more important than the integrity of the game. While you could have two JV officials who "let 'em play" and everyone is fine with it because "it's AAU" and the games stay on schedule.

And yes, I treat camp settings very differently from non-camp settings when it comes to these kinds of tournaments. Supervisors expect you to officiate at camp like you would officiate a regular season game (in most cases).

This is easily the most important reason. e.g. An organizer could pay a 2-man crew $25 apiece per game or pay a camp director $50 per game to staff however many courts with 3-man crews. Now they get more bang for their buck–accountability for the officials and 3-man crews–for the same price as paying the officials.

We're sharing a brain on this thread, SC!

All this is why I pick-and-choose my off-season officiating.

Exactly. And AAU outside of camp is something I basically refuse to do except for one case where the tournament assignor is a good friend and has our back. Otherwise there is no point.

Peace

For 5 years I have been going out of state to work for these national AAU tournaments. I have brought friends who can referee and we enjoy 2-4 days together working a court(s).

I go because I get to do Varisty with kids who have committed to Div 1/2 schools and I get to talk to Div 1 Final 4 referees who are supervisors at this tournaments. I get camp level feedback while making money and spending time with friends.

They beg me to blow fouls, call clear advantage/disadvantage violations, and to keep control of the coaches. Because my crews are consistent in calling a good game coaches rarely give us much of a problem that a good professional warning doesnt take care of. On the other courts I see guys missing big calls and never making it to half court and ignoring the clowns..err coaches and some get sent home or have their pay lowered.

I can imagine the issues at these things and the officials vary widely. And I feel like I have taken advantage and come out on top. Yet it took a lot of hard work and isnt easy especially at my age. Yet I love to see new kids, test out new methods on coaches and see some great ball.

Look no further than the world's best player and leading global ambassador of the game, LeBron James, acting a complete fool (hardly any better than LaVar Ball really) as both a coach and fan at his son's AAU games. There are many videos documenting his behavior, but this will do just fine.

Don't be mislead by the headline or glowing opening paragraphs. Seeing him and his entire coaching staff routinely 5 feet onto the court during live action a half dozen times within the first 90 seconds of the video will give you an idea of the clown show:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...icle-1.3371462

There are other clips out there of him giving the "it's us against the world; everyone wants to see us lose" adversity speech, while wearing a bucket hat and sunglasses indoors, right out of the Coaching 101 course at AAU University. There's another of him running onto the floor -- as a fan -- and interfering at the scorer's table because he feels there's been an error. It never ends ...

AAU is the scourge of the basketball planet. And not even the world's best player, who has experienced everything under the sun, has the composure or sense to rise above it. The adults really do ruin everything.

I watched at least half of that video expecting to see out of control behavior.

None to be found. The real problem was having a highly attended game in such a small facility.

If the only thing you can say is he's out on the court...well I've run across coaches from AAU to college that have that problem as well.

Edit: Watched the full video. Nothing of real note. If we want to be real...it's on the officials to enforce the coaching box. But in the grand scheme of things....that clip...nothing even registers

+1

How do you think that would go over? Be real indeed.

1) AAU has a dress code for coaches.
2) Article says right up front that this is part of the Adidas Uprising, so THIS IS NOT an AAU event.
3) Fans at the venue I work AAU games at get tossed, or at least a conversation with security, for running up to the scorer's table, so why does this fall under "AAU is the scourge of the basketball planet" category?
4) It is on officials to keep coaches off the court. Are you expecting tournament organizers to come on the court and tell the coaches to sit down?

Gets enforced here, especially during AAU sanctioned events. Maybe folks in your area need to start developing some backbone.

Actually, it was supposed to be 3 female officials. If everyone heard the full story (which I'm sure will eventually get around), they'd be shocked to learn that Adidas' behavior was even douchier than has been reported in various articles.

That is not true. First of all, the clinicians don't run the camp. Secondly, it was a consideration to pull all the officials from the tournament, but that would have penalized over 100 campers plus all the other teams.

The official in question is from China, where apparently it is customary for such contact with a player. And the kid got T'd for this by another official, it's just not noticeable on the video.

Honestly...I doubt it'd be an issue....especially if the official isn't an ***hole about it.

"Hey coach....help me out...I know there's limited space on the sidelines but I can't have you five feet on the court."