Being Real
 

My last two games I worked were not the best officiated games. From my standpoint, the men I worked with didn't see the games like I did.

In one game, one of the officials did not know how to do three man mechanics and was out of position most of the night. He always rotated away from the ball when he was lead, causing the Trail to come up and be Center. The other official and myself were trying to adjust to him. (By the way he is one of the top officials in this association and was the R for the game. He would not even pre-game!!) I felt like it was just out of sync.

The other game, all three of us were in the correct positions in three men and rotating correctly, but one of the officials kept calling out of his primary all night. Case in point, I am the 'C' and the play is three feet from me. The girls attempted a three-point shot, she missed. I stayed with the shooter. NO foul. Except from Trail he calls a foul. At halftime I asked him what he saw. He said that 'blue' got her arm. I said okay, but the play was three feet from me and you had to call all the way across the court. HE said I call them like I see them. The rest of the game was worse.

After both games, the other guys were shaking hands. "Hey good game". HOnestly it wasn't. I shook the other officials hands and smiled. Honestly, they were bad games. Out of position, calling out of your primary, and you know what that leads to - reaching for calls that aren't there, coaches raising cane for the out of position, etc.

I just want to know. Are you really honest after the game?

I caveat my statement by stating up front, this opinion comes from a primarily sub-V official.

My pre, half-time, and post game reviews are mostly initiated by me. They are honest and to the point and much of the time are self-assessments and questions. Many times my partners are not interested, not as serious about the profession, may not be trying to improve or get better, and may be officiating for different reasons.

I have shook (shaken?) a hand or two and said, “Nice game” or “I enjoyed it” where I wasn’t as sincere as I could have been.

If others don’t want to “play by the rules as emphasized by our Association,” participate, or see it the same way as me, their loss IMO. Mostly I just let it go. I really, really appreciate a good partner who is serious about doing it the right way, points out the good, bad, and ugly – AND has fun to boot! JMO

First of all, it is not my job to critique officials in games I am working. I am equals at the time we are working games. Someone gave them a game for a reason and all I want to do is get on the same page. I am always going to have some kind of pre-game with my partners so we can have some understanding of positioning and other issues before the game. After that I just try to do my job and help my partners out when possible. I am not always going to work with similar skilled people all the time.

It is not about being honest, it is about being professional. I am not going to rip a partner that I do not know over positioning or calls. I might talk to them during halftime or other breaks in the game if there is some confusion, but not after the game. I usually say "Nice to work with you" or "Nice to meet you."

Peace

You can be honest without telling the WHOLE truth. After a game with a really lousy partner: "It was nice to get acquainted, have a great weekend!" "I loved that PC call right at the end" "Hope your knee feels better soon." etc. If you're the up-and-comer and P is the old vet, and isn't open to your question-phrased concerns, screw it. Or as mick will tell you,.....


Get in, get done, get out.

OT side note: MTD, did I phrase that better?

iref4him:

First, I want to say that I feel you pain.

Second: You and your partner should not have let this go past the end of the second quarter. I do not care if he is the R for the game or not. When both U's are on the correct page and the R is not, then at half-time the U's have to take care of business to correct this situation.

Third: I would not have let him off the hook. I would have told him that he needed to officiate his primary and trust his partners. I would like to know what your other partner had to say about this.

MTD, Sr.

With young guys or a partner I don't know, I'm usually pretty PC about the post game chat.
With some of my old buddies who I've been down the road with, I usually say something like, "I really thought you would've learned how to call by now. That fourth foul you had on the big man was the worst call I've ever seen"! (They do the same to me.)

I figure if someone is so bad that I don't want to work with them again, that is between me and my assignor, and an argument in the dressing room wouldn't be productive anyway.
The only time, lately, I've confronted a partner was because he made an awful call in my primary that gave a team free throws to win the game with less than a second on the clock.
He said something like, "I wouldn't have called it all the way across court, but I had a good look". I said, "You kicked the call and cost the other team a win", got my clothes on and left. Haven't worked with that guy since...

Of course, this is OK to avoid an OT. In fact, it's not only OK, it's encouraged. Well, at least by me. ;)

:)

I'd love to work a game with you sometime just so I could try to force it to go into overtime and then have you try to keep it from going there. :D

Of course, this would require a sizable wager. :)