How would you handle this situation? A1 is goes to hoop and has the ball swatted away, the home crowd goes crazy. A1 runs toward the crowd screaming and pointing at the score board (his team is winning by 9 less then a minute to play)yelling "Look at the scoreboard we are winning" Do you T him up for taunting? A timeout was called by the losing team. I approached A1 and warned him about taunting the crowd and also talked to the coach. The coach sat him the rest of the game. I am a second year official and have never called a T. Did I handle this properly? Appericiate any input.

your expalnation sure sounds like tauting to me!!!! WHACK!!!!

There is no doubt about it. The minute he went and talked to the fans you should have whacked him....But then the fact that he pointed to the score board and said "we are winning" in my opinion is grounds for an unsportsmanlike "T" followed by an ejection.

Ditto the last two guys--

Kids need to learn to enjoy the game--not the self-promotion/taunting (aka Terrell Owens) stuff that is so popular these days.

"T"--every time.

NO DOUBT A "T"

What???!!!
 

I think I would have been there to get a sense of the game's tone.

Tauting the crowd? I don't think so. But, I wasn't there.

How about the crowd taunting him for the checked shot attempt... T the crowd?

In my opinion, it would have to be pretty egregious for me to T him up for "taunting" someone that isn't in the game (the crowd). His actions would have to have some influence on the players or the coach before I would even consider this to be taunting.

What if he said to the crowd "Nice check wasn't it? My team is still winning by nine and your team hasn't scored nine points this whole quarter. Go figure."

Unless his acts were extremely showboating, I don't think I would be interjecting myself between him and the crowd by calling a technical foul. Again, HTBT.

Re: What???!!!
 

Just a comment, Tony. POE 1A of the 2003-04 rule book says that the FED had a concern about players "playing to the crowd" by "attempting to increase attention and praise for for their own individual accomplishments rather than towards the game itself and team achievements". It says that these acts could be considered taunting and thus be "T"-able. I agree that you should handle these with care- i.e. warn him if you think that he's starting to go too far.

Re: What???!!!
 

I agree with HTBT. But it does sound like extreme showboating to me.

T seems obvious to me, but I don't see how anyone could consider this unsporting enough to warrant a flagrant T. A1's actions showed up the other team thus the T.

JR beat me to this one, but this was a POE last year. Do not let players showboat or taunt to the crowd, period.

And whackman says,

"Whack Him!!!"

Since the coach sat him I Beleive the coach felt he dodged a bullet (T). If you Teed him you may have stired the crowd up even more. Not being there and having no feel for the "game" I think you showed good judgement. As did the kid's coach.

Re: What???!!!
 

Down town:
How can you say this isn't taunting. First off, we are taught to ignore the crowd and not say anything. So the players should to. That is a fans job to pay his or her 3 bucks and make life miserable for 32 minutes. Anytime a player goes and talks to a fan I am going to say something, but when he did what he did it is a T every time. The job of the player is just that play. Even if he went to the crowd and said "Nice check wasn't it? My team is still winning by nine and your team hasn't scored nine points this whole quarter. Go figure." Iam still going to whack him because thatis unsportsmanlike and he can find the shower on his way out.

[Edited by refaholic on Nov 18th, 2004 at 02:33 AM]

refaholic,

You'd call this flagrant? Wouldn't a simple unsportsmanlike T be sufficient?

While this original post does sound like a fairly straightforward T, I can't say what I'd do every time. You'd "have to be there." If the game had been uneventful up to this point might dictate me handling it different than if the game had been testy.

The bottom line is that toolsoh's approach worked great and he was there to make the judgment. He addressed A1 and the coach and you must have done a good job explaining because coach backed him and sat A1 down. As Mick would say, "he got in, got done and got out."

Z

I think you have to call this T because, as others have stated, it is a point of emphasis. Also, you won't always have a coach that will back you up on this by sitting or even talking to the player. The best way is to take care of business yourself. In this case, it would be a good time for the young person to learn a lesson without costing them the game.