2 Questions from a Football Official
 

1. Why do the basketball officials working the wings, in 3-man mechanics work 3-4 paces out on the floor, instead of on the sideline? It seems to me that these officials could very easily interfere with the players if they move quickly in their direction, and often get closer to the offensive player than his defender does.

2. Player A1 just passed the ball to A2 near the top of the key, and A1 proceeded to move toward his position in the low post. Player A3 was moving along the baseline with defender B1 moving with him. Players A1 and B1 collide. It appears to be completely incidental/accidental, but A1 was called for an illegal screen foul. A2 had passed the ball to A4 on the opposite side of the floor drom where the contact occured. Is this the right call?

The "center" official (the one on the side by himself / herself) should generally be on the sideline. The specific movement, though, is about getting angles to see between the players. For the "trail" official that's almost always on the floor, and can be for the center if the ball has come into his / her area.

Not nearly enough information to answer.

Angles. We need to see between the offensive and defensive players, and many times, you just can't do that if you're planted on the sideline. You see the Trail official out on the floor much more often than the Center official; but even the C can step onto the court for a good look occasionally.

Absolutely no way of knowing without seeing it.

1. Yes, it's all about the angles. Generally as the C I stay with my heels just inside the inner boundary line, but if I was straightlined with a pair of players I'm watching, then I'll move onto the court more to get a better view.

2. Like the others said, it's tough to say without seeing the actual play, but it sounds like incidental contact to me, unless the ref saw something beyond what you describe. It really looks bad when this happens and players get floored or crash pretty bad, but that's just the way it happens sometimes.

I usually am on the court when I am in the C position due to the fact that the gyms around here dont have much of a sideline. But I do like to be at least about a foot on the court so I can move to the proper position that I need to see the play(My preference only).

As far as the other play, need to have seen it to make a judgement on what happened as others have stated.

Really the only answer is because this is not football. Football is played near the sidelines by design. In Basketball the sideline is considered a bad place to be and most of the game is played in the middle of the court. Officials have to step onto the court to get angles unlike football where if you do not stay on the sideline, you will be involved directly in the play.

Like others said, I have no idea based on what you described. This is a HTBT situation.

Peace

1)Same reason that some of the football officials are positioned on the field, like the Back Judge, and Field Judge… cause that’s where you need to be to properly see the action.

2) Without seeing the play, if the offensive play was looking at the defender and attempting to position his body in a “screen like” manner, then it could have been an illegal screen. Like the others have said, though, can’t tell without seeing the play.

Side and Line judges need to stay wide because they have a lot more area to watch and lots of possible people running in/through that area...basketball is more compressed and fewer bodies, so we can step in and focus more on a smaller area and possibly only one competitive match-up. If all 10 players are on the other side of the key, I'm going to be 3-4 feet onto the court to make sure I'm involved with what's going on. If the players start coming my way, one big step back has me back on the sideline.

Only one?

Btw, I agree with the rest of your post. :D

Hell.

Straight to.

Shutup on the way!:D