I took a tumble last night....
 

Last night, a great game ... in fact Team A only won by 2. With 4.2 seconds, Team B is inbounding in back court after simulataneous timeouts, I hand the ball to B kid, he inbounds pass to three point line, I take off running and..............................................
get tangled up with someone, FALL..... .... manage to get up and run the length of the court to signal 3 point attempt by B (misses)....... and then sound whistle to end game... run off court..... get to locker room and I am telling crew in the locker room that I fall and look down at my pants...............and you guessed it yet.................. have holes in my pants where I burned out the knee in my tumble.... today,,,, knee caps are sore and will have bruises..... first time in 13 years that I have ever fallen......... heehhhhhheeeehaaaa...... this is what it is all about - a great game, a great partner and a great story to remember..... this is why I love the game.....

So have you ever fallen during a game?

Sounds like you were making calls off your a$$.:D

Yep, once in transition. JV game, as T.

Steal, long pass, now L going into front court, another steal. Reverse footing to get back and there is someone right behind me as I reverse footing. BAM! (as said by Emeril) :(

Guess I wasn't out wide enough or he was too wide. Thankfully, inconsequential to the play though.

Yup. JV game, I was Lead in transition and a kid ran up my back, got my feet tangled and went down. Rolled over and signaled out of bounds from one knee. Pants had burn marks on them and I had to get rid of them. :(

JUCO game, almost identical to Scrappy's play. I slid about 15 feet along the sideline, got up & made it to the endline to call the and one. I got a nice round of applause which did not make up for me getting rid of a new pair of pants with a hole burned in the knee. :)

Yep. Tripped over this huge boulder in transition. Actually, I don't know what the heck I tripped over. It was like the point of my shoe just stuck to the court, and I did a head first slide right in front of the visiting teams bench. Got up and continued to move to the lead position as if nothing happened. But it took me a couple of trips down to get that out of my system.

Surprised to hear that everyone burned out their knees when they went down - I thought polyester was built to withstand a nuclear blast....

Yep. Doing a wreck game, Catholic school gym, tile floor with, shall we say, waves? Anyway, as I am transitioning from trail to lead after a steal, I hit one the bad places on the floor and as I am going down, I stick my hands out to break the fall and broke my right wrist. Lost a couple of weeks worth of games and then finished the season with a cast on my right wrist. Learned to finally signal with my left hand.:D

Well I voted and all I've got to say now is knock on wood. :)

Trail To Lead
 

Three times:

Fast break, I'm moving from trail to lead, along the sideline, looking over my left shoulder at the players moving up the court:

1) Run into the only set of bleachers opened on that side of the gym. Twenty-seven years ago, and I can still feel the pain in my shin.

2) Run into a cheerleader. She falls, I keep going. Officials don't have to try to avoid contact like players running into or though a screen. Right?

3) As I turn to become lead, my legs get tangled together.

I'm new lead trying to stay ahead of a fast breaking A player who was looking back hoping to receive a pass. She was directly behind me, running faster than me and not looking forward. Our feet got tangled, I went down, arse over tip, so to speak, and she received the ball, cutting towrad the basket and thus missing my flying body parts. I did a full somersault, came up on my feet and called a foul on a B player trying to cut off the shot. Very dramatic, and no permanent damage.

I've never fallen but I've almost stepped on several cheerleaders! I actually hit one with my hand once when I started the five second count on an inbounds play.

Today I was working a game with my partner that is 73 years old and he was Lead and decided to try and get a better angle and ended up a couple feet onto the playing area and a girl happened to hit him square on while she was cutting through the paint and my partner was off balance at the time and he went flying and did a couple of rolls on the floor. He didn't get hurt but you wouldn't guess he's 73 either. He actually gets up and down the court pretty darn good. This was a Girls Varsity game BTW.

A guy I went to camp with took a tumble while running backwards. It is on tape.

I've not, but have made a few players take a dive, inadvertently, of course! :) Guess I just have more solid footing than any of those players. haha.

Been hit by the ball in transition on many occassions too. Easy target, I guess! ;)

I have been run into many times, but I have never fallen. I guess I am lucky so far.

My experience was much like this one....only on the opposite side of the court in front of the stands. To make matters worse, it wasn't even a fast break.

I'm trail, jogging alongside the point guard bringing the ball upcourt and just went down.

I still contend that the centerline was painted thicker than the rest of the lines!!!!:D

My partner & I were officiating MS girls game last year.. happened to be the school I went to down in another town... He was lead on a steal, and was backpedaling, tripped, fell, his heels touched the ground BEHIND his head, and then was ran over by 3 girls. I actually managed to get the game tape from the Home Team, but it doesnt show it all, so I am going to try to find somebody that taped the game from the visiting team (my town), so 20 years down the road I can show it to him and laugh! haha

Best Line Of Week
 

From Andy: "I still contend that the centerline was painted thicker than the rest of the lines!!!!"

I nominate this for the "Best Official Forum Basketball Line Of the Week".