Chuck goes Big Time....

[DrakeM]

One of our own is moving up in the world.
Chuck Elias just got picked up by the USBL.
(Hope you don't mind me telling, Chuck.)
Welcome to the world of "big picture" refereeing!
And also welcome to the "dark side."
Let's give him his props!

[w_sohl]

Congratulations, I too one day aspire to be a professional official.

[ChuckElias]

I was trying not to toot my own horn, but thank you. I'm very excited. I'll let you all know how my first game goes.

Chuck

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by ChuckElias
I'll let you all know how my first game goes.
Chuck

Yea, that's easy for you to say... but you said you'd let us know how the results of the try-outs turned out, and you didn't do that!!! We'd better lean on Drake a little to either work ir observe that First Game, to let us know how it goes.

Seriously, huge congratulations to you!! Hope it's as much fun as possible!!

[devdog69]

Q: Tell us a little about the USBL, as far as what it is, who are the players and where do the officials come from.

Q: Why did they choose you? What are your attributes that make you an excellent official?

Q: What steps/breaks in your career let you move up through the levels to where you are currently?

Q: Where do you go from here?

Just answer what you feel like, don't have to get too personal. Congratulations from all us wannabees.

[ChuckElias]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by rainmaker

Yea, that's easy for you to say... but you said you'd let us know how the results of the try-outs turned out, and you didn't do that!!!

You're right Juulie, and I apologize. Below is a copy of an email that I sent to Drake and Dan with only minor modifications:

I just wanted to let you know how it went this weekend at Fordham. The players were there for the US Junior National competition. I guess this is a chance for the state's best HS juniors/seniors to try out for a national team. It also serves as an college scouting combine, from what I understand. This was a much better experience for me than the "tryout" two weeks ago. I worked 5 games over the course of the day (2 girls, 3 boys). The girls talent was not very impressive but there were some very good boys there. In any case, I was glad to be officiating instead of sitting there watching all day. The only drawback was that there were only 3 or 4 people there to watch us work. Tom Palmgren (assignor for the league) was there, as well as the guy who gave us our rules talk last time. And a young guy named Zach, who works the USBL and the NADL. He was the best guy to talk to. When I wasn't working (I only had one game before lunch), I just stood with him and we talked rules and situations. It was an amazing learning experience.

I was asking him about the various types of fouls (away from the play, clear path to the basket, flagrants) and the different penalties. When I asked about elbow fouls, he talked about why they try to stay away from elbow fouls (like HS officials stay away from multiple fouls) and how you might handle a hard elbow if you didn't want to call the elbow foul. The 2 hours of talking to him was worth the drive to NYC.

Anyway, this event was kind of the opposite of the last one. Last time, there were plenty of observers but you only officiated 20 minutes. This time, I worked all afternoon and got observed twice.

There are plenty of things for me to work on, obviously, but one of the hard things to get used to is how soon in the possession they want the Lead official to rotate. In college, we're told to wait until the ball settles on one side. But at the pro level, they want you to rotate to the ball side almost as soon as it comes over midcourt. After coming home, I watched the Lakers game and, sure enough, ball hits the frontcourt and BANG, there goes the Lead. The only problem with that is that, without a shot clock, you're like a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth as the ball gets swung around 20 times.

So over all, it was a good experience (and hey, I got a free T-shirt out of the deal!!) and hopefully, I'll know this week if I get any games. If we're asked to do another "workout", then I'll just say "no thanks" and move on. Either way, it's been an interesting process to go through.

[mick]

Outstanding, Chuck !

Attaboy !

[ChuckElias]

Ok, first of all, I really don't feel that my news deserves this kind of attention. I certainly don't want anyone to feel that I'm trying to be a big shot, b/c honestly, I'm no big shot. But just in case anyone is actually interested in my answers, I'll give it my best.

Q: Tell us a little about the USBL, as far as what it is, who are the players and where do the officials come from.

The USBL started out in '85 with 7 teams, located primarily in MA, CT, NY, and NJ. After much expansion and contraction, the league is currently comprised of 10 teams, spread from NY to FL to Oklahoma. If you want to know more about the league's history and a list of players that have gone from the USBL to the NBA, they have a website that is fairly easy to navigate: http://www.USBL.com

They hold a draft every year, so I think most of the players come from colleges and I assume that the teams scout out talent. Several teams also held open tryouts this season. I heard that the St. Louis team had 250 players come to the tryout. If I had to make an analogy, I would guess that the USBL is kind of like DoubleA baseball in the minor leagues. Now that the NBA has the developmental league, I would think that the NBDL is AAA and the USBL is one of several "minor leagues" (like the IBL, ABA, etc) whose players hope to make the leap into the NBDL.

To become an official, I just filled out an application for the tryout. There were about 30 of us, just at LIU; and I think there were 3 other locations where they held officials' tryouts. The officials that I met at the tryout were mostly guys (and one woman) who had worked in Pro-Am leagues before, although there were several who had never worked above high school. I don't know how many of us were accepted.

Q: Why did they choose you? What are your attributes that make you an excellent official?

I wasn't told why I was selected, but I can tell you what I think my strengths as an official are. I am pretty good with rules. I tend to learn them quickly and retain them. I was able to study the NBA rulebook for a couple weeks before I went to the tryout. So I was able to ask intelligent questions about application of the rules, and maybe that showed that I was a little more prepared than some of the other officials there.

Also, I am in good shape and very quick. I was able to keep ahead of the play most of the day. I think I "looked the part" out on the floor. I moved well and could get to my position quickly. In fact, I was actually told that I was working too hard!! That's never happened to me before. When going from Lead to new Trail, I hustled into the frontcourt and was told to slow down and trail the play more.

Part of looking the part is good mechanics, and I've worked very very hard on my mechanics throughout my "career". One of the first things the evaluator at the tryout said to me was that I have excellent mechanics. I personally feel that counts, signals, and reporting to the table are vitally important.

Finally, I was able to adapt to new mechanics. I listened to the instructions I was given. There were several things that I do on the college level that they didn't like. So they told me how to do them, and I was able to change. Sounds simple, but not everyone was able to do it.

Q: What steps/breaks in your career let you move up through the levels to where you are currently?

My officiating career has been a "slow and steady" story. I've done high school since '93, HS varsity since '97, started college in '98, and finally cracked college varsity in '01.

As you can tell, I haven't made any dramatic leaps. In fact, I dealt with a lot of personal disappointment while waiting to move up to college varsity. But those things were really out of my control, so I simply decided to continue doing what I was doing and wait for somebody to notice.

Q: Where do you go from here?

I have no idea, because honestly, I never expected to be "here"!! I suppose that if I do very well this season in the USBL, I might send an application for the NBA summer camp next year. But that seems like a very unrealistic pipe-dream.

I think a more realistic next step for me is to move into NCAA Div 1 ball. That's probably not very realistic, either, but it seems a little more likely than the NBA in my case. I'm already 36, so I'm not sure I would be considered "young talent" to be groomed in the NBDL. I love college ball and I hope to someday work D1.

That is wayyyyyyy more than anybody needs to know about me. But thanks for asking

Chuck

[Richard Ogg]

Chuck, congrats. I'd like for you to elaborate on the no-elbow-fouls comment. Why do they avoid those? How do they handle it? It is a lot more than a 2-hour drive to NYC from California, so give us some of that benefit if you will, please.

[rcwilco]

Congrats and the absolute best of luck

[crew]

Originally posted by ChuckElias

I think a more realistic next step for me is to move into NCAA Div 1 ball. That's probably not very realistic, either, but it seems a little more likely than the NBA in my case. I'm already 36, so I'm not sure I would be considered "young talent" to be groomed in the NBDL. I love college ball and I hope to someday work D1.

That is wayyyyyyy more than anybody needs to know about me. But thanks for asking

Chuck

do not get dicouraged about age this yr a 40 yr old rookie was hired in the nbdl and 2 yrs ago a 34 yr old rookie was hired as well. if the pro observers see talent and think that you can be groomed in 3-4 yrs for their level they will hire you. you just have to put yourself in a position to be seen.

[walter]

Congrats and Good Luck!!!

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by Richard Ogg
Chuck, congrats. I'd like for you to elaborate on the no-elbow-fouls comment. Why do they avoid those? How do they handle it?

They try to avoid the elbow foul, for the same reason we tend to avoid the multiple foul: the penalty is unusual, it invariably requires an explanation, and you can accomplish the same thing by calling something else.

I'm sure Drake, Eli or crew will correct me if I'm wrong, but here goes:

In the NBA, they have a flagrant foul (type 1), a flagrant foul (type 2), or an elbow foul.

Flagrant 1 results in 2 free throws plus possession of the ball to the offended team. This is not an unsportsmanlike foul, but 2 Flagrant 1 fouls result in ejection. This is pretty close to an intentional personal foul for excessive contact in high school.

Flagrant 2 results in 2 free throws plus possession of the ball to the offended team. This results in ejection for the offender. This is pretty close to a flagrant personal foul in high school.

An elbow foul results in 2 free throws (but NOT possession of the ball) to the offended team. An elbow foul is considered an unsportsmanlike foul. If the elbow contacts the opponent above the shoulder, the offender MUST be ejected. If the contact is shoulder-level or below, the offender may be ejected at the official's discretion.

Ok, so say a guy throws an elbow into the opponent's chest and the opponent goes down. You can't really just call this a personal foul, b/c of the hard contact. The problem with the elbow foul is that it's unsportsmanlike, which means that if the guy already has one unsportsmanlike T, he must be ejected. If you feel that he doesn't really deserve to be ejected for the elbow, then you will most likely just call the Flagrant 1. It's a slightly more severe penalty (includes possession of the ball), but the guy gets to stay in the game.

On the other hand, if the game is starting to get away from you and you want to send a message, you can use the elbow foul. This way, the guy has to stay on his best behavior from now on.

I guess most officials would rather not assess a foul that counts toward a player's personal and his unsportsmanlike limit; so normally, they would choose to call it a flagrant.

Does that help?

Chuck

[stripes]

Congratulations Chuck. I always like to hear about good things happening to the good guys.

[Dan_ref]

BTW, if Chuck doesn't post a game report I will, I'm
hoping to see one of his games. Gotta go warm up now

"Over the back!"
"ONE! TWO! THREE! Hey! Call the 3 seconds!"
"Call 'em both ways!"
"Hey ref! You s&ck!"

Congrats again Chuck!