Fun Basketball
 

Had a good time officiating tonight. Had some of the Globetrotters alimni and Michael Cooper from the Lakers alimni here to play our Police for a fund raiser. Magic was supposed to be here also but didn"t make it. Not many real calls but fun for the crowd. Anybody ever do these kind of games?

I've done a couple when the Trailblazer Alimni team played the faculty of my kids HS as a fund raiser. They are a lot of fun!

Was this a furlough program? Did they play in orange jumpsuits?

Everybody's a critic...

Not this group. We're talking guys like Greg Smith, Nick Jones, Darnell Valentine, Shaler Halimon, Larry Steele, Bob Gross, Michael Harper, Dale Schlueter, Darrall Imhoff and others like them. These are old school NBA folks who went on to become contributing members of the community after leaving the NBA, and each and every one I've had the opportunity to meet is truly a class act. Over the years they volunteered hundreds of hours of their own time to participate in fund raising events that have raised millions of dollars for schools and other civic organizations.

These are good people, and don't deserve to be the target of snide comments.

That's not to say that some of the others haven't "contributed" hundreds of hours of community service as well :D

In Scrapper's defense, when you see Trailblazers, you almost automatically think Jailblazers. It's a legacy that they're going to have a hard time overcoming unfortunately.

As was said though, it is too bad that everyone ends up getting tarred with the same brush.

I was working a college summer league once when two of the Globetrotters just showed up and got into the games. They were in town doing a kids clinic for a friend and wanted to know where they could get a game. So they showed up there. They even put on a show. I had one of them pick up his dribble and then walk about five steps and shoot a layup. I went with it and called a travel. He acted like he was upset with the call and came over next to me and put the ball on the floor. He was yelling at me and then under his breath told me to pick the ball up. When I leaned over to pick it up of course he kicked the ball away from me. Gee. Never seen that one before. It was pretty funny and fun to be a part of it. He was a nice guy and thanked us both for playing along after the game.

In March, I always do my High School Teachers vs. one of our local radio stations. It's more fun to watch my formal teachers play their heart out.

No argument from me - I'm certainly no fan of the current owner. I gave up my season tickets in disgust years ago, as did many others. IMHO the owner's micro-management combined with actions of the previous management team under the direction of "trader Bob" all but destroyed the franchise. At least the new management folks appear to be trying, though they've still got a long way to go. Most of the trouble makers they inherited have been gotten rid of, and just a few days ago they suspended Zack Randolph for a game w/o pay for an obscene gesture & comment he made in response to a taunt from a fan - cost him $133k in salary. Patterson's comment was that they're not going to tolerate that kind of behavior from anyone, whether they're #1 or #15 on the roster. Maybe there's hope.............

When I taught, I was pretty informal.

I volunteer at the end of February every year for the Regional Special Olympics Championships. Very rewarding experience.

Steelers
 

I get to ref the Pittsburgh Steelers Basketball team almost every year. It is a great expereience. Some of the best have been Brett Keisel (McDonalds All-American at BYU for basketball) Neil O'Donnell, he could shoot lights out, Hank Poteat, and Richard Huntly. Roethlisberger isn't bad either. He just takes it easy.

I was able to work a Blazer alumni game two years ago at my local HS. We had my grandson Tyler dress up as a ref and run along the sideline during the game mimicking our signals. The players thought it was really funny. At halftime, I had him go over to Dale Schlueter and give him a T just for laughs.

Pretty much, you work this type of game like you would imagine working a Globetrotter game. The guys are just fun to work with.

BTW - I once tossed Kevin Kunnert when he was coaching his daughter in a local rec game. It was really weird.

Or, maybe not. Today Randolph protested the fine and said "everyone knows this is unfair." "Everyone"??? I don't think so. Sounds fair to me. :mad: