Learned that Richmond was booted off the team with a few games to go in the regular season last year, apparently after calling out the (still new) coach, and a fight with a teammate even earlier in the year. Somehow in the off-season, though, he and his camp decided it would be better to stay at the 4,000-kid high school and NOT attend his third school in three years, so he's behaved on court for the most part.

-- Another thing: Although his call has been totally scrutinized, your friend technically didn't get overturned. He didn't say somebody couldn't play in the next game. He just made a call on the court. Maybe the state administrator got it right: The official was justified but the spirit of the state's rule (two unsporting T's and you miss a game) was not broached. What's that famous saying for us: Just get it right. (All that said, that administrator has opened Pandora's Box and I wouldn't want to be in his shoes ...)

One of the most chilling aspects of this is, whether you're in Alaska or Chicago, you can expect not only videotape of games to circulate, but it now can be used as a pretty powerful weapon on You Tube -- as Dad Richmond demonstrated here with his posting of the video and recruiting of folks to view and deluge the association with complaints. Not that anything ought to be backroom-ed or swept under the rug, but it's a new day out there for us, ladies and gentlemen. Scrutiny is good, but where does it start and stop?

So to answer someone's question from the other thread yesterday why we even bothered discussing this in a forum like this, it's because a campaign like this can happen to any one of us. And you better believe more of this will happen in the future.

And I'm not just talking about when Padgett whistles the phantom hack with 0:00.1 remaining in a tie game just to avoid going into OT.

Actually he was kicked off the team at the last game of the year if I recall correctly. And it was because he got into it with the coach both at halftime and after the game. I applauded the administration at the time taking care of business.

Peace

I'll preface this by saying I'm friendly with him, I'm not close enough to call him a friend. He's a good official.

Funny, I spoke to the player tonight and told him I saw his LeBron crab step, to which he laughed and admitted he did travel.

I've chatted with him a few times in the past and he seems like a good kid.

Oj
 

"Richmond, the Sun-Times Player of the Year and an Illinois recruit, received two technical fouls in the Bulldogs win over Fremd on Friday and was ejected from the game. IHSA rules state that if a player is ejected from a game for unsportsmanlike conduct, he cannot play in the next game....."

Concur with JRut - this incident reminds me of the OJ Mayo incident a few yrs ago where he received the two T's in a HS game. His "case" actually went to court so he could play in the upcoming nationally televised ESPN game and not be suspended. AND as I recall, he won and played in the ESPN game!

I think the Richmond and Mayo cases are very, very different.