Great Comeback

[TC]

I was working a Sat. AM 9th grade double header with an older official. Weather was bad and 9:00 am start so there was a very sparce crowd. But, there was that one guy in the stands that we've all heard, ie; You guys don't know the rules. That's a terrible call. etc. Late in the second quarter this guy is yelling "three seconds, three seconds". Now, everybody in the gym can hear him. About 1 1/2 sec. after the guy's yell, my partner, who is lead, blows his whistle and says "Three seconds, Gold ball". Then he points to the guy in the stands and says "Good call but you were about 2 seconds too quick!" We didn't hear anything from that guy for the rest of the game, and you should have seen the look on his wife's face.

[hoopsrefBC]

TC

Another suggestion for those hard to handle early morning fans....

get an old whistle fill it with glue or some other material that impeads the air flow and hand it to the cranky spectator during a stopage. Depending on the mentality level of the fan they might get the message.

keep smiling

SH

[Mark Padgett]

Try this one that was told to me by a grizzled old veteran. Give a whistle to that fan and tell him you are probably going to miss a few calls and you would appreciate his help. Tell him to just blow it whenever he thinks you missed something. Be really polite and act like you're serious.

The first time he blows it, tell game management that someone in the stands has a whistle and you want him ejected.

If the fan says you told him to do it, say, "Are you nuts?"

[Dan_ref]

I had one a while ago, not too many people in the gym
but a great game. B1 violates before A1 shoots his FT,
this bonehead starts yelling "Violation!! Violation!!"
He get's the free throw over!!!" Even the shooter
turned around to look at this guy, finally I said "Don't
you think we should attempt the FT before we give him
another try?" Bonehead smiled and said "Yeah, good idea"
and we didn't hear from him again.