very unprofessional

[de la hoops]

hey all. this is my first post, but i've been reading this board for some time now, and just finished my 5th year of officiating. a situation occurred in an AAU game in which i was a spectator that really bothered me.

it was a relatively close game (5 or so point difference late in the game.) one of the officials had his cell phone at the scorers' table b/c he was coordinating officials for the tourney (a relatively large tourney.) suddenly, late in the 4th quarter, his phone rings during a live ball while he was T in front of the table. he hears his phone, turns his back on the game and answers his phone. meanwhile, the game turns into a rough scramble for a loose ball, and one of the teams has 6 players on the court. coach realizes and gets player off the court, but official doesnt notice...he is still on the phone!!! eventually L calls a jump ball and T finishes his conversation on phone. the fans and coaches are letting him know they are not happy. the game continued with no other incidents.

as a younger official (i am 23) i debated whether i should approach him after the game to discuss the situation. i chose not to.

i had never seen anything like this before!

[Mark Padgett]

I saw something like this happen once and the official explained that the other officials had been directed not to call him unless it was an emergency, such as a player being badly hurt.

Knowing the guy, however, I think it was more likely the call was from someone confirming going out for beer after the game.

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by de la hoops
hey all. this is my first post, but i've been reading this board for some time now, and just finished my 5th year of officiating. a situation occurred in an AAU game in which i was a spectator that really bothered me.

it was a relatively close game (5 or so point difference late in the game.) one of the officials had his cell phone at the scorers' table b/c he was coordinating officials for the tourney (a relatively large tourney.) suddenly, late in the 4th quarter, his phone rings during a live ball while he was T in front of the table. he hears his phone, turns his back on the game and answers his phone. meanwhile, the game turns into a rough scramble for a loose ball, and one of the teams has 6 players on the court. coach realizes and gets player off the court, but official doesnt notice...he is still on the phone!!! eventually L calls a jump ball and T finishes his conversation on phone. the fans and coaches are letting him know they are not happy. the game continued with no other incidents.

as a younger official (i am 23) i debated whether i should approach him after the game to discuss the situation. i chose not to.

i had never seen anything like this before!

I think you were smart not to talk to the guy. If I were you, I'd never work for him, and especially never work as his partner!

It would have been real easy for him to instruct the table people to answer the phone and tell whoever to "hold on a second". I can't imagine that anything could possibly happen that couldn't wait for the next dead ball.

[mick]

Originally posted by de la hoops
...as a younger official (i am 23) i debated whether i should approach him after the game to discuss the situation. i chose not to.

de la hoops,

Welcome to the forum.

If you weren't sure, you made a good choice to withhold your question.
A Tournament Coordinator should have enough on his plate while the tournament, not just his game, is in progress.

If you ask around, or ask him a coupla days after the tourney, you can probably find out.

I cannot imagine why it "really bothered" you. You must have known it was at least marginally important.

mick

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by rainmaker

I think you were smart not to talk to the guy. If I were you, I'd never work for him, and especially never work as his partner!

It would have been real easy for him to instruct the table people to answer the phone and tell whoever to "hold on a second". I can't imagine that anything could possibly happen that couldn't wait for the next dead ball.

I dunno Juulie, I don't assign these things but I know folks who do & generally it's a nightmare to keep games on time & fully staffed. It might be Mr Cellphone had just run in to cover that game & needed to know what the status was for the next game in the HS 2 towns over. I agree he might have found a way to wait for the next dead ball but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt & not put him on my personal scratched for life list.

[mick]

Originally posted by rainmaker
If I were you, I'd never work for him, and especially never work as his partner!

Jewel,
Your rush to judgment surprises me.
That TC could have been filling in for someone else; he could have had a home emergency; there could be 1001 good reasons to take that call.

mick

[de la hoops]

thanks for the input.

to expand a little...
the table had been answering his calls the whole game (i was sitting directly behind the table.)

he was on the court the game before and stayed for the next game.

i guess you'll have to take my word that it was bad game management. if the phone call was uber important, imo, the game could be stopped. i understand the position he was in assigning games to officials.

as for talking to him afterward, i do not know him and the tourney was not in my "home area."

[JRutledge]

I would not make such a big deal over this. This is an AAU Tournament. This is just practice from my point of view. I would have just dealt with it. I would have asked what happen and made a joke out of it. But that is my personality and the way I handle things.

It was just an AAU game. I would feel differently if this was a regular season game.

Peace

[brainbrian]

Originally posted by JRutledge
I would have asked what happen and made a joke out of it. But that is my personality and the way I handle things.

I probably would have asked the same. If you're both laughing over it he probably would be more comfortable answering your question and not feeling as though he had to defend himself. And then he'd probably give a good response and you'd feel better.

That is, however, if I would have brought it up at all. I don't know. There are many other variables there.

[26 Year Gap]

I suppose he could have blown his whistle and THEN answered the phone.

[brainbrian]

Originally posted by 26 Year Gap
I suppose he could have blown his whistle and THEN answered the phone.

Eh, I might think this was even worse, drawing that attention to himself so he could answer his phone.

Don't know though, this is a weird situation.

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by mick

Jewel,
Your rush to judgment surprises me.
That TC could have been filling in for someone else; he could have had a home emergency; there could be 1001 good reasons to take that call.

mick

Well, frankly, I'm surprised that you and Dan aren't more critical of this sitch. I've done some assigning, and I know how tough it can be. I also know that there isn't anything anywhere that can't wait for the next dead ball. If it's an injury or something like that whoever's on the other end should know what to do without calling, for pete's sake. Even with trying to keep things on schedule, as Dan points out, a few seconds until a dead ball aren't that critical. If the guy knew ahead of time that there would be problems, then he should have made a way for the partner to step up and work alone while this guy is on the phone. I can't see that reffing and assigning can work together, and I"m pretty good at multi-tasking!

[proref27]

I agree, very unprofessional. I would say anything unless you really know him. Just don't ever do it. Now, if it happened a game you were working I would not hesitate to light my partner up. That would seriously piss me off no matter what type of game. Gives a terrible image to the parents that their game is not important.

[drothamel]

I have to agree with Juulie and Proref on this one. Whatever the nature of the call, there is no reason to answer it during a live ball. If nothing else, the kids playing the game deserve better than that. We all have things that are important that occur while we are officiating, but we all know that those things have to wait for an hour or so. In this case, even if he is the tournament director, he could at least have the courtesy to wait for a dead ball. That is just a really bad, bad thing IMHO. I do agree that you were probably right in not questioning him about it, if for no other reason than self-preservation. If you have a relationship with the guy, maybe you could talk about it. Definitely a strange one though.

[mick]

Originally posted by drothamel
We all have things that are important that occur while we are officiating, but we all know that those things have to wait for an hour or so.

We all may have things that are important that occur while we are officiating, but we all know that some of those things may have to wait for an hour or so.

For me there is enough room for doubt to avoid immediate and total judgement.
mick