It looks like the NBA is about to go two-man again. Joe Crawford is hurt again.

Torn plantar faciatis (spelling?) Which runs along the bottom of the foot.

[Edited by tomegun on May 2nd, 2004 at 01:49 PM]

Someone might know more about this but I think my friend told me that the pro two-man mechanic is to officiate to the left of the ball and go immediately to the strong side at the lead. Is my memory correct?

What game is that?

Hornets-Heat.

But there was a more important thing I noticed -- Blaine Reichelt (26 year vet) was wearing pants that had a BELT. In the N-B-A.

--Rich

One thing that has been burned into me, 2-person or 3-person, is that you ALWAYS have one set of eyes on the players. Surprising in the NBA that they rarely followed this "rule" today, and it ended up biting them in the rear. Both officials were discussing a timing error, completely oblivious to an altercation that happened near the Hornets' bench in the 4th quarter.

Also numerous times during the game, Corbin was reporting to the table while Reichelt was chasing after the ball, and there were no eyes on the players.

I realize that many officials are offended by criticisms of their brethren, but I do agree that it looks tacky that Blane Reichelt wears a belt. However, he may not be the only NBA official that does this, and I'm sure that he has the supervisor's approval.

One thing I did find interesting was that they said he was a 26 year vet who had done only 10 playoff games. People can make their own assumptions with that.

My assumption is that he's good enough to make a living as an NBA official. There may be better, but lesser officials get fired.

--Rich

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Oh heavens...say it isn't so. Next you're going to tell me that he has good rule knowledge too. Get rid of him! :rolleyes:

Z

My assumption would be that he's managed to stay in the NBA for 26 years. What a stud.

Z

[Edited by zebraman on May 3rd, 2004 at 01:13 AM]

I made this point in the other thread that I started about the 2-man situation in the Rockets-Lakers game. It didn't get much support.
I honestly believe that the NBA guys do very little 2-man and just aren't used to having to watch this extra stuff. The are so well trained in the 3-man responsibilities and all the stuff that "looks good on TV" (like speed in reporting and getting the ball back in play) that they have to make a HUGE adjustment when a 2-man situation arises.

Someone wrote about NBA officials receiving 2-man training in the other thread, I would really like to know more about this. Do they work 2-man games in the summer?

FWIW, I think that this is the final season we will see a lack of alternates at first and second round playoff games. It is happening too much. The league can't like it. JMHO

I think part of the problem with the game yesterday is Reichelt. OK, I would love to do 26 years in the NBA with 10 playoff games. He is a stud because he has been in the league for 26 years. He has surely done pretty good financially also.
Now, from the moment Joe Crawford went down it seemed like you could tell he is a U2 in the NBA. He followed Sean Corbin when Traylor was ejected. He followed Sean Corbin after the discussion when Joe Crawford went down. He followed Sean Corbin to the table prior to the altercation and he followed Sean Corbin to the altercation. I would like to think that at this point everyone working games in the NBA could be a leader on any given night. He doesn't seem to be a leader and IMO it showed.
I was shocked to hear that he had been in the league for 26 years and had 10 playoff games. I think this would raise questions with the above average fan. I will be honest, I don't live in an NBA town or have the league pass and I've really only seen him on TV in the last 3 seasons. I think he needs the belt.
Although this is the highest level of officiating, I think it's safe to say most of us have seen a similar situation at our level.
Sean Corbin looked like he was carrying a lot of weight yesterday.

:eek:

Saw this, too.

Didn't look good at all.

I would just hope that, if all three refs were present, at least one of them would have the common sense to turn around so that they could see the players.

I did not see the start of the Lakers-Spurs game, but according to the box score, the officials were: Blane Reichelt, Jack Nies, and Steve Javie. The names were in that order so I wonder if the order of the names corresponds to Crew Chief and Referee 1, and Referee 2, which is the NBA notation for R, U1, and U2.

Since I have friend who is an NBA official and two friends who are WNBA officials, I am not going to jump on the Bash Blane bad wagon because I do not know the man and I only saw the end of the game mentioned in the beginning of this thread and only bits and pieces of today's game, but I was suprised the Blane was again wearing pants that required a belt. It was like watching a game on ESPN Classic.

Let me add the following article on ESPN.com:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1796727

Blane has been around for quite a while. I'll never achieve the success that he has in officiating. So, consider these two points as observations and not criticisms.

1- The belted slacks are definitely out of place. Quite honestly, he looks like he's lost weight and needs a belt to help keep his pants up.

2- His mechanics paled greatly when compared to Steve Javie. Even Jack Neis, who certainly isn't the prototypical looking NBA official looks much better than Blane. Just the way that he walks, swinging his arms, makes him look like he's at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I, too, missed the opening tip but my guess is that Javie was the crew cheif.

I wear belted slacks (currently the pleated style, and I hope that they stay in style forever) for dress and golf as well as for umpiring, but I do not wear them when officiate baseketball. The first time I saw other basketball officials wearing the beltless slacks I said that I would never go beltless, and then the first time I tried them I swore that I would never wear anything else. The really funny thing is that I later said the same thing about v-neck shirts and pleated officiaing slacks.

And we wonder why our kids laugh at us when we tell them that we really dressed like the actors dress in "That 70's Show."

MTD, Sr.

It is still amazing to me that he has been in the league for 26 years and I've only seen him within the past 3 years. He is not an official that is easy to forget.

Some of us were BORN in the 70s, and have very little memories of that decade at all.

But how 'bout those old collared ref shirts? :) I think that we should bring them back! Maybe get the whole crew for a State Final to wear them.
I recently saw one of the vets at a weekend tourney wearing one and told him that 1975 called and wanted the shirt back.