Yikes!! Well, I"m batting about 05% today. Guess I'll quit expounding. I did get the part about Star Trek yesterday right. ChessRef, it wasn't Data, though. It was Janeway and Chakotay.

So which Season 7 didn't you like, Scrappy? Voyager? TNG? DS9? or the original:eek: ?

I guess I just don't get it (so what's new?). I was taught to make the same call on the same type of play the same way from start to finish. If there hasn't been a 3 second call all game because it hasn't happened, and then it happens in the last minute of a close game, I'm going to call it because that's the rule. I'm not going to not call it because it wasn't "blatant". If I don't call it, I'm not being fair to the team on defense.

Remember, every time you give one team a break, you're penalizing the other team.

I hear a lot of spectators/parents/fans saying stuff like "let the players decide the game"... well, if your player has slow feet and needs to use two hands to try to keep the offense player from getting to the basket, that player is deciding the game by fouling. Letting it go would be not allowing the offense from deciding the game by making his freethrows. If hand-checking and rough defensive pressure is allowed in the first half, why call ticky tack touch fouls at the end of the game because one team now wants to foul due to strategy? I wanted to fouls to be called in the first half due to strategy (get fouled, make freethrows)... I say let them play, but calling fouls and shooting freethrows are part of letting them play...

unless you deem calling fouls in the first half intentionally not letting them play...

Let Them Play! Let Them Play! Let Them Play!! Why does this remind me of Mike and Kelly Leak in the Houston Astrodome, then little Tanner Boyle making the security guards look stupid.. :D

The original didn't go 7 seasons. :)

Sometimes, "letting them play" is heard due to the fact:

That one team in more physical and less skilled than another team (i.e., football players playing basktball against basketball player).
That the game is being called too tight by newer/younger officials.
That the teams are overly and illegally agressive, the teams are lacking skills and the game is already in the toilet so everyone wants to go home.

Sorry I am a little late to the party.
 

I am of the mindset that if you call things early that are blatant, you will not have to call many of those things later in the game. Usually that means I do not have to ignore much of anything. Or if I call something late, chances are we have called something similar earlier in the game and that call will be accepted on many levels.

Also understand that players tend to get out of control or are more aggressive at the end of the game as well. And often times people are just flying around and calling something at the end is more difficult.

Peace

If it's a foul the first minute, it's a foul the last minute.

The player that commits the foul or violation did decide the game.

This makes a great little sound bite. But as a mindset, it is really off-base. While we shouldn't set out to ignore fouls and violations, we shouldn't be in the business of looking for ways to give the other team the ball.

You know he's not saying that, BITS, but the clarification might be helpful for some readers.

From my personal experience and observations, the vast majority of new officials let way too much go. I include myself in that majority.

In my area we get alot of "football" schools and they will mug the other team till you stop it. They have lots of heart and muscle but minimal talent.

I don't think Padgett was advising one way or another, I believe he was just wanting folks new be aware that once we deviate from the rules which advantages one team, then we are creating an equal and opposite disadvantage toward the opponent. I don't think it's even a 1/2-step off base.

I agree with regard to new/rookie refs that it's hard to put air in the Fox.
I used newer/younger to describe 2-4 year officials that are starting to get into their books and are now soaking up "all the information" (knowing all the rules), but have not yet become familiar with incidental contact and flow interupters that don't need to be called. ;)

I called the first (and only) FT violation of the night last night with 2:30 to play. Does that make me a bad person? Or would that only be if it happened 31 seconds later?

Sometimes the players give you no choice, ...as long as the player clearly violated, ... blatantly, yer good. :)