Inner city team A playing inner city rival team B to open the season at A's gym. About 100 or so people in the gym, the "diversity mixture" is as might be expected. I and a player from B are like 2 vanilla sprinkles floating in a chocolate/mocha milk shake. No big deal. Until my partner calls a foul on my fellow sprinkle about mid way through the first half. As we line up to shoot FTs the young sprinkle walks by me and comments "I know *you* wouldn't have called that foul on me."

What would *you* do?

Call the next 4 fouls on him. ;)

Peace

Remind him that you call the fouls you see and maybe he should think before he comments because he has his hands full enough just playing the game and doesn't need to work you to get the next call. Then move on. Or you can do what Rut said.

Seriously
 

I would not even entertain that conversation. I might say something like, "Young man, play basketball." Then I would walk away or get away from him. I have been in so many of these situations where the color differences are present. You just have to get prepared for those kinds of situations.

Peace

My first inclination would be to "T" up the little sh*t. He's directly questioning your partner(s) integrity imo with that inference. Personally, I usually don't bother warning for that crap either. One way or another, I think that you have to impress on him that the only colors that the officials are looking for out there are the colors of the shirts.

You can't change his beliefs. You can control the way that he expresses them though.

Well that depends JR.
 

I agree that he is questioning your integrity. I agree that his comments are out of line in many respects. But if the player or coach says this to you in such a quiet way and no one hears him, I might handle it another way.

This kid just put me on point with his attitude and his behavior. So now he is not getting the benefit of the doubt from me for the rest of the game. Some contact he was involved in that was questionable might just be a foul. I will never make anything up and I will always officiate for the tape. But I sure will not just "let it go" when he does something. Eventually he will be out of the game and he will realize that his comments did him no good.

Peace

If he's saying something you'd T him for if it was louder and it is going to bias how you call your game the rest of the night, i.e. he will get no slack, wouldn't the T be better?

Whack him and move on. That sends a clear message.

The beauty about officiating is that you can handle many situations any way you like. If you feel a T would be better, use a T. But then remember that you will have to explain a one on one conversation to someone. And like many coaches do, they believe the kid not the officials. Now the assignor gets word of the situation and starts asking you questions about what was said and starts nitpicking your behavior and your judgment.

That is why you either ignore his behind or just keep doing what you already have been doing. I know when a kid comes to me and complains about what another player is doing, I tend to remind them that means I will see what you are doing too. If the player has an outburst that everyone can see, at least you have tape or everyone can see he had to say something.

Peace

What's to worry about? It's an easy T. The player is accusing your partner of a racial bias and implying that you will have his back, also based on race.

It's no different than dropping the N-word on somebody while he's out there, but it's okay if only you could hear it, and it won't show up on tape.

Not to mention that your other 4 foul calls on this player will also be on tape, and how do you defend a ticky-tac call on him when you've let the same thing go on other players when/if your assignor asks?

He called my partner a racist, so I fouled him out. Yep, that's a much better solution.;)

"Congratulations, young man. You now have my undivided attention...for the rest of the game."

Said quietly, I'd would not acknowledge the statement and I would continue to officiate without prejudice.
Some people are stoopid. If they are quietly stoopid, it is better.
mick

I had a similar situation
 

A scrimmage, so there wasn't a lot of intensity there. I called a foul on a player. One of his teamates says to him, "don't worry, it was racial".

I stopped everything and went over to him and asked that perhaps I misunderstood what he said. He replied he was talking to his teamate. I again, asked if I perhaps didn't hear him correctly, then told him in a game his night would be over.

Who said anything about being worried? You choose to make a scene and now have to explain a hefty accusation.

Please do not start those “N-word” comparisons. That is more insulting than what the kid implied.

Who said anything about calling ticky tack fouls? What I have found in my experience is that the kid that takes little or no responsibility for fouls and his actions will usually do the same thing again. I will not have to make up anything to make a point.

He did not call him a racist. :rolleyes: Save that drama. He implied that because "we are the same race," I would give him a break. He just let me know that he cannot take any responsibility for his actions, so I will make sure that anytime he blinks wrong I got a foul on him. No benefit of the doubt or ruling what might be considered incidental. Now I have any push, hold or pull that he makes. Any screen he makes is not perfect, I have a foul. All it takes is just two fouls and he will be on the bench anyway. If he plays the game by the rules (no pushing and holding) then he has nothing to worry about. This is no different than if I have two teams that almost had a fight during the game. You adjust your officiating to the knuckleheads that do not want to play by the rules.

Peace

Your take from post one, was sprinkled with comments like.

On the tape, explaining to the assignor, yet now you say who's worried?

You are not addressing an issue by dealing with the problem, you are altering the way you are calling the game to deal with the player and not WHAT THE PLAYER DID.

This is not anything like changing mid-game for rough play, that is calling more to STOP out of control play. That's addressing the problem by calling what's causing the problem.

Your approach to this player is not, you are covering yourself from explaining what the T was for, and not dealing with the kid's behavior.

Like it or not the kid DID imply that your partner was racially biased, I don't care HOW he said it, he said it.

Let's add a wrinkle. A non-vanilla sprinkle player hears what the kid said, and you being a sprinkle don't penalize it, and in your original post you did not even go as far as to verbally address the issue, now you call a close one on a non-sprinkle player. Did you not just open the door for this player to also question your integrity?

I agree with Jurassic Ref. He basically insinuated that your partner is a rascist; took a shot at his credibility. T him up.