acting up?

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by icallfouls
You are undermining the officials on the floor when you make comments about the officiating.

Even if I comment about how great the officiating is?

But the fact is that if everybody in the gym -- except the official on the floor -- sees the player step OOB, that the official is the one who has undermined him/herself. If I say to my wife or my buddy, or even a stranger, that the player did, in fact, step OOB, I don't see how that undermines the officials, or shows them disrespect. If I say that the player did not step OOB, or say that I really couldn't tell (the official must've had a better look), then I'm lying and I undermine myself.

I hope everybody understands (for the umpteenth time now) that I am not talking about yelling at the officials or disparaging them in the stands or discounting their judgment. I am simply talking about observing that the official missed something obvious that happened.

It is even worse when you know the people in the community where the game is being played. THe people there know who you are and what your standing is, so they look to you validate what they think.

And if what they think is obviously correct, why shouldn't I validate it? It serves no purpose to pretend the officials are infallible. But. . . I agree that any view I express is given a great amount of weight by people that I already know.

If you do it in the stands, it is believable that you would do it on the floor.

I occasionally do disagree with my partner on the floor. And when that happens, I go to him/her and say "I saw something different". My partner then decides whether to alter the call based on my info -- or not. But I never do this when it's a matter of judgment. It's a line call, or when my partner calls a violation in front of me when there was no violation. Essentially, my policy on the court is the same as in the stands. If the blown call is something obvious that the official missed (except for issues of judgment on contact), then I feel justified if I mention it.

If you disagree, so be it.

As far as the original post, it is certainly inappropriate to attempt to disrupt what the officials on the floor are trying to do - give 100%.

On that, we agree.