My Partner Quit

[JRutledge]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bigwhistle

Rut,

Do you ever do anything for the good of the game, or to give back something to those people and the levels of play where you learned some valuable lessons (even though not always fun)?

Your posts are consistently derogatory against anything that you feel will not help YOU PERSONALLY move up. While you do have that right, it would be nice to hear encouraging things from you occasionally.

Just a thought, since you never know who may be in a position to help or hurt you somewhere down the road.

Let me ask you this, do you live in a world that is possibly outside the world of officiating? For the "good of the game?" You must be one of those individuals that thought Ozzie and Harriet were real and that people actually lived like that at one time in this country. Well let me break it to you. This is real life. All people do not always act in the best ways. I would also assume that the individual that posted this did not know the entire story or did not talk to the official about things that made him leave. I love basketball as much if not more than most. I love officiating probably more than most here with the time and energy that I put into it. But I can think of several reasons that I would leave if the right things happen. Not because a coach or fan pissed me off, but if I was threatened or if I was treated in such a way that it got way beyond the game. This might have been the case and it might not have been. The reality is that we apparently do not know at all. All we know is the result or the action that was taken. I think it is very irresponsible to go running to assignors and individuals that have nothing to do with the tournament or that have nothing to do with this incident.

When I talk about officials to other officials I usually leave their name out of it. I do not make a habit and do not make a habit of running officials in the ground to "higher ups" or other officials. Usually I will not say anything bad about an official if even asked by "certain" parties.

I personally think it is much more unprofessional to report things that we do not know the entire story. You do not know what was going on here. We do no know if he had a ligitimate run in with a tournament director or had to deal with something that someone in charge should have had to deal with. We just do not know.

Finally, this was a freakin AAU TOURNAMENT FOR GOD SAKE!!!!! This is the place where the official is the last on the totum pole or last on the food chain. There are AAU Tournaments where officials are not even paid for any of their time. This is a place where kids spend more time about getting recruited and making a name nationally for themselves, rather than looking at how "sportsmanship" and conducting yourself accordingly is beneficial to us all rather than a stupid game. Remember, this is just a game. And anyone that does not see the bigger picture hear needs their head examined. Not because they are critical of what I think, but that you treat this vocation that we call officiating as the end all be all of reality. I sure hope you have much more things to worry about as an official then whether an official made the right decision or not. You never know, the official just might have realized the ramification of his actions. Give him some credit for that.

Peace