NBA 4-Person Mechanics
 

One of the issues with 2-person crews is that in transition, the new L often gets way behind the play because the athletes are much quicker than the officials.

Going to 3-person helped because the T could hang closer to the division line, and hopefully get a jump on getting back to the endline ahead of the play.

Watching NBA games this year, there are still TONNES of instances where the in-transition L is actually a C at best. To this end, I developed the 4-person basketball officaiting system. A patent is pending, so if you're lurking Stern or Nunn or whomever you are, you'll owe me lots of $$$$ if you use a 4-person system.

First possession:

• Toss is done by the R facing the table.
• U1 takes a position as in 2-person.
• U2 is singing somewhere for a benefit concert. Sorry, U2 is in the L position under the home basket, and U3 is L under the visitor's basket. Both U2 and U3 are on the opposite side to start the game.
• Once a team gains possession, U1 becomes the C and R becomes T. The L official not being used (U2 or U3) then rotates to table side.

Subsequent possessions:

The C and T now slide up and down the court reversing positions. The T becomes the new C and the C becomes the new T. The L on the other end of the court doesn't move off the endline.

Rotations:

The L may initiate a rotation just like 3-person crews, but it also forces the L at the other end of the court to flip from opposite to table side, or from table to opposite side.

Switches:

As in 3-person NBA mechanics.

This will bring many more officials into the NBA officiating ranks, which creates jobs for the American economy, which is always good. Oh ya, and since 3% of the NBA teams are from Canada, 3% of the officiating staff must be Canadians.

I wrote an article on this for the pay side a couple of years ago. So your patent is invalid because my "prior art" already exists. But I'm not greedy; I'll give you 3% of my royalties. ;)

Another benefit of this is that assigners could send a crew of four to do an all-day tourney. No having to worry about games off, or how many games a ref can run in a day. 4 guys can do a dozen or more games, and still be fresh as a daisy. :D

And it's great if a team goes to a 4 corner offense

I've always like the 4-person Barcalounger system.

Put a recliner in each corner of the court, sit with a nice cold beverage and your whistle - no rotations needed.

Forgive me for my lack of details on this, but I can recall reading a NYT article about a D-III team who scored about 140 a game (and gave up about as much). They subbed every whistle and had no set offense other than "GO".

The refs decided to just station the T underneath the other basket, because 2 of the members on the crew remembered back to their last game with this team (located in NYC) and said all 3 members of the crew sat in the shower after the game for about an hour, so exhausted.

Perhaps they could have used this 4 man mechanics. I think 5 man would have worked nicely, 2 refs sitting above the shot clock like goal judges in the NHL (which have been eliminated BTW).

what about something that is way "old school" in california where the 3rd official is up high in the stands and is calling everthing that the 2 officials are missing???? Just a thought....