Favorite Moment from the Season

[packersowner]

With basketball season winding down in many parts, what has been your favorite moment of the season?

I have to admit, I think we have gone overboard with getting every last kid on the bench in the scorebook, but there have been a couple of times where late in games a special needs kid was able to come off the bench and play. The excitement they have is contagious and one of the reasons I stay involved.

However the night after the FL shooting, I worked a game where both teams stood together on the court with their arms locked around each other. Both teams and the officials agreed that we would toss the ball and let 17 seconds run off the clock before playing. The coaches said it was the players idea to do that to honor those students and adults who had lost their lives.

Put things in perspective for me...

[Terrapins Fan]

Hard to top that one.

I had a game go overtime on a shot with under 1.6 seconds. 2 good partners and an enthusiastic crowd.

https://forum.officiating.com/basket...vs-8-11-a.html

[BillyMac]

Mine was my toughest game, from a game management point of view. League rivals, it was a fairly lopsided game, although it got within ten in the fourth period, but the players, and coaches, were constantly challenging us. An early double foul (a rare call from me) should have given us a clue about the rest of the game. Two opponents chest bump each other during a throwin situation, warned to stop, next throwin, the same thing, so double foul. Third period, intentional hard foul (excessive contact, kid ended up in the bleachers) (Coach: "But he was going for the ball"). Technical foul on coach for yelling at me ("bullshit"), technical foul on player for hanging on rim (showboating) after a breakaway dunk (As the trail, I kept saying to myself, let go, let go, let go, and he didn't). Players glaring at each other after fouls, especially when untangling after they go down to the floor. We spend the entire night telling kids, from both teams, to just "walk away" from such situations. Every whistle for a foul, or held ball, required us to step in between bodies quickly to keep things from escalating. We were calling touch fouls the entire second half. It came down to the last seconds when the home captain (up by fifteen) was thinking about taking an unopposed three pointer as players from both teams allowed the clock to wind down (he looked at the clock, looked at the three point line, and loaded up to shoot until I told him, "Don't you dare", he complied).

https://forum.officiating.com/basket...ml#post1016242

As my partner and I sat in the locker room after the game, both physically, and mentally, exhausted, we both agreed that we needed that game, that both of us had had a uneventful, easy season to that point. This game really tested our game management skills and, for the most part, we were successful. No ejections, no fights, we did our job that night, we had to be on task 100% of the time that night, it was not a game where we could just get in, get out, and get paid. To paraphrase John Houseman in those classic Smith Barney television commercials: That night, we made our game fees the old-fashioned way, we earned them. My ride home that night was quite satisfying, no double guessing, we gave our best.

[Terrapins Fan]

BillyMac, I wish there was a "like" button.

[#olderthanilook]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Mine was my toughest game, from a game management point of view. League rivals...

Awesome post, BMac. Thanks for sharing.

[RefsNCoaches]

Mine came as a spectator at Senior night for my daughter who is V Basketball Cheerleader. Her school's team had a kid get injured badly early in the year....don't know the extent of the injury but it was enough to end his SR season in an upper body brace.

He warmed up with the team (as much as he could walk and shoot a few standing layups) and he got to start this game with 3 other Seniors and one Junior....

Opening tip, the visiting team did not challenge and they tapped the ball to one kid who fed the kid with an injury an easy pass. He walked in for an uncontested lay up. Visiting team then inbounded the ball and was given an uncontested layup at the other end. Home team then inbounded and walked the ball to half court and stepped out so they could sub the kid out. He left to a standing ovation from both home and visiting crowd.

It was a nice display of sportsmanship in a conference match up.

[Mark Padgett]

BillyMac - that sounds like an incredibly difficult game to work. I give you kudos for staying on top of it without just trying to get out of there ASAP.

Good job, buddy. Go take a quarter out of petty cash.