Olympic refs go both ways
 

Has anyone else noticed that each of the Olympic refs is doing both men and women basketball games? My initial reaction is .... cool. A pet peeve is that there are so many unnecessary differences among nba, ncaa-w, ncca-m and nfhs rules that a disservice is done to the game and officiating. FIBA provides a unified set of rules and on that point is a positive influence.

On the down side I have found it a game to game challenge to switch between above the rim boys/men basketball and girls/women basketballl.

To check out the Olympic game results with referee assignments see:

http://phillyref.com/basketball/olym...asketball.html for men and
http://phillyref.com/basketball/olym...asketball.html for women

Can you please cite an official who has worked both a mens' game as well as a womens' game?

Neither official from the USA has worked both genders.

PS Padgett or someone else is going to knock your "softball" of a thread title out of the park. :D

You're not serious, are you? Nev, I generally like your posts, but I think this is the dumbest one you've ever made. Are you too lazy to do the leg work yourself?

No worries, though. I will do it for you.

Dawna Townsend worked a women's game on the 9th @ 9am, and a men's game on the 11th @ 8am.

You're welcome for the 13 seconds I saved you.

Look at the website he posted. Just a quick glance shows someone named Townsend from Canada has already worked both genders. didn't look any longer, but if he says there's others, there probably is.

PS. Damn. The canuck was quicker than me...again.

So far there have been 18 games played of each gender. That's 36 total games. With 3 officials per game, that is 108 assignments. With 30 officials, that's an average of 3.6 games/official. I wonder what it means for those officials who have already done 5 games?

Thank you, but why the attitude?

Being American, I checked the two American referees. I found that neither one had worked both genders. I did not wish to go through all of the rest of the officials with the search function.

You, being Canadian, obviously started with a Canadian official. So Townsend turned up as such an example right away for you. Wonderful.

I see that Townsend has worked 3 womens' games and one on the mens' side. Are there other examples? Is this the norm or is what the American officials doing more representative of the group?

A few Examples:

Eddie Rush, usa has worked 2 men's games as well as the Belarus v Russia women's game

Dawwna Towsend, can has worked 3 women's game as well as the Angola v USA game

Carl Jungebrand, fin has wroked 2 men's games and 1 women's game

Al-Amiri, kuw has workjed 3 women's game and is scheduled to work the Australia v Iran game

Petr Sudek, svk has worked 1 womens game and 2 men'games


It seems like many, if not most, of the officials will go both ways before its over.

Actually Eddie Rush (from the NBA) has worked both sides. Not that it matters, because I do not care what FIBA does. To compare FIBA to other leagues is a little silly and not looking at the bigger picture with the NCAA or even the NBA/WNBA assignments.

There is probably more money on the line (for the outcome of just the basketball) with the NCAA or NBA as compared to a two week tournament that only happens every 4 years.

Peace

Untrue. Actually, I noticed Townsend and Zavlanos because they worked the first woman's game. That's the search method I used. Pick the first names and look for them in the other list. In CS, I wish I knew what kind of search that is.

See wanja. :p

Its interesting that you mention NBA/WNBA assignments. Both the D-League and the WNBA are feeders for the NBA. The following WNBA refs have moved on to the NBA:
Mark Ayotte
Matt Boland
Tony Brown
Derrick Collins
Pat Fraher
Dee Kantner
Bill Kennedy
Courtney Kirkland
Ed Malloy
Tommy Nunez, Jr.
Violet Palmer
Jason Phillips
Eli Roe
Kurt Walker
Zach Zarba
Gary Zielinski

All of them did not stay -- e.g. Dee Kanter.

Silly? I don't think so. The professional money and pressure are issues. However, all of us that takes this seriously bring our own pressure to do well. If you screw up a big olympics game, a few people will know about it. I'll bet that Eddie Rush is very focused to put a good foot forward as a rep of the "best referees in the world". Also as the USA men and women team players will tell you, the level of play is no joke.

It is silly to me. It is silly because a feeder league and having to prove yourself before you work the "money league" is different than working the Olympics which has two tournaments going on at the same time in the same sport. I am sure as a general rule an official that would judge gymnastics also can do both genders. Or even a Volleyball Official would also likely do both genders. And as far as I know, the rules for the most part in basketball and most sports are nearly identical. That is not the case at least with the NCAA and definitely not the same with the NBA and WNBA.

Peace

That's true. I just double-checked. Obviously, I don't understand how to read the results from the search function. :(

Joe DeRosa and Sally Bell officiated in the 1996 Olympics and I am pretty sure that Sally worked a couple of men's games. It is my understanding that the officials chosen for the Olympics are expected to be ready to officiate both men's and women's games.

MTD, Sr.

Prominent? I wouldn't go that far. Yet. But what centering her out have to do with anything? She's no different than anyone else in that list, afaiac.

Yes, Violet Palmer is still in the NBA and worked the most recent playoffs. All the other listed WNBA alumni also were in the NBA last year except for Dee Kanter and Kurt Walker. Sorry if the original post was misleading.

I think he was commenting on the "All of them did not stay" remark made by Wanja.

I think Wanja meant to say, "Not all of them stayed" or "Some of them did not stay."

:shrug: