Is it?
 

Is basketball your favorite sport? Just curious about what some members have to say.

No, football is. But basketball is my favorite sport to officiate.

Peace

It used to be as it was a good workout and is the ultimate team sport where role-players can not only survive but thrive.

As the kids have grown older their interests have moved to baseball, however, and so I've picked up on that as a coach and student of the game (to the point where I'm thinking of officiating baseball as well once the kids grow up).

Rugby is. Basketball is a close second. I enjoy sports that are more of a continuous play by nature.

I have three kids. Ask my wife what my favorite sport is.

Oh wait - on second thought, you'd better not. :p

Fishnets are not a sport, Mark. :D

But they can be sports equipment. :D

Basketball is easily my favorite sport. It is also the only sport I officiate.

Not to give away my age, but I have participated in an organized (school, intramural, adult rec) basketball league for the last 41 years. I currently play twice a week and started officiating 14 years ago because I was starting to slow down and wasn't very competitive playing. Thankfully, my wife is very understanding when it comes to basketball.

Golf is my favorite with BB a close second.

Golf, football, baseball and then basketball. But I agree that it is my favorite to officiate.

Shooting a BB gun is your second favorite sport!?!?! :eek:

What's your third favorite - shooting a BB gun on the golf course? :confused:

Favorite is football. Favorite to officiate is basketball.

On a side note, I notice no one is saying volleyball. I love to play volleyball, but going to a bunch of HS matches, there is no possible way I coud ever officiate the sport. It has got to be soooo boring to officiate.

I did HS volleyball for a couple of years. There was quite a bit to keep me engaged. As the up official there is a judgment to make on every contact. As the down official, there's trying to track everybody.

OTOH, I have actually completely blanked out officiating a church volleyball tournament. One moment I'm beckoning for serve, then the next thing I remember the players are all standing staring at me wondering what call I had. Between matches I ran to the local C store for an industrial sized caffeinated drink. :D

Yes. Not even close. Growing up, I was always the worst athlete, the last kid picked for everything, that is until I discovered basketball in 7th grade - something clicked. I wasn't the best - but I was no longer the worst. I was hooked, am hooked, for life. I think the dimensions of the court, the size of the ball, the thinking involved, the fact that it was a winter sport....all made it my favorite sport.

I really like all of the "big four" - baseball, football, basketball and hockey. Of course, I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, so that translates into White Sox, Bears (and Cardinals before them), Bulls and Blackhawks. As a kid, I played a ton of baseball and I was one heck of a shortstop. We didn't have any organizations for the other sports back then. As a teen, I umpired some park district baseball for three seasons. We used only one ump and you stood behind the pitcher. I really enjoyed it and I got paid $2 per game, which was a pretty good rate back then.

Soccer? Fahgeddaboudit, unless one of the grandkids is playing.

Basketball is my favorite to officiate,

Pro Football and College March Madness are my favorites to watch on TV,

Hockey is my favorite to see live (Baseball is the cheapest to see live (but can be slow at times)), and

Golf is my favorite to still participate in.

I like em all!!!

I enjoy watching baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. If I had to pick my favorite sport to watch it would probably be baseball.

I officiate baseball, basketball, and football. I guess I'm a seasonal official as whatever sport I'm in seems to be my "favorite".

Spectating: The NFL

Participating: pick-up basketball

My top three!!
 

I only officiate basketball.
My favorite sport to play is baseball followed by football then basketball. I rate them according to the level of my success while playing the sports. But, I do enjoy all three.

If I really had to pick my favorite to watch, it would be the NHL back in the day when I had season tickets for the Blackhawks for two years. This was when they had Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Glenn Hall, Dennis Hull, Pit Martin, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Pat Stapleton, Gilles Marrotte, etc.

Man, that was an exciting time. Watching Bobby Hull play against Gordy Howe was almost a fan's fantasy.

Baseball is my favorite sport and it is what I played all through high school. I love basketball too, particularly high school and college. I don't watch the NBA anymore. Love football too, I'm basically a sports nut. I officiate basketball and baseball, but basketball is by far my favorite to officiate. I like the constant movement and the ability to use judgment and determine advantage/disadvantage. It can be easy to zone out working baseball, especially in the field. An hour and a half basketball game seems to fly by, but those high school doubleheaders in baseball can take four or five hours and seem like twice that sometimes.

As I stated earlier, I love hockey live and up close too!

While it might not be Hull vs Howe, or even Gretzky vs Lemieux (yet), here in DC we have "The Great 8" Alex Ovechkin vs Sid "The Kid" Crosby - which ain't bad!

PS - besides, in DC, it's all we've got! :(

What about all those games being played in Congress? Plus, if I remember correctly, there was some kind of sport being played in Bill Clinton's closet with my cousin Monica.

Actually, soccer officiating requires better conditioning that just about any of the other sports & probably even more snap decision making. ( illegal contact, offside, etc. with 22 players on the field)

Most soccer officials run an average of 4.7 miles on the pitch during a game. The halves are also 45 minutes with no time outs.

Reffing soccer keeps me in shape for doing basketball. Or, is it the other way around??

Fahgeddaboudit?? Only if you can't hack it.... :D

BB is short for Bad Boy:)

Quite possibly.
Not sure I agree with that. The proximity of basketball makes for a lot more situtations. With soccer, there are at least 7 of those 22 who are not even remotely involved in the play at any given time (1 goalie and, commonly, 4 defenders, and 2 forwards form the other team). Of the remaining 15, only a couple are really at risk of being offsides, and through much of the game many of them are not really near the ball nor near another player. Stuff may happen away from the ball, it is not really that common. Most soccer action happens in the vicinity of the ball.
Not the one my team had two weeks ago. :eek: The guy barely moved. His OOB calls seemed to be determined by a coin flip as he got them wrong about as often as he got them right. Both the opposing coach and I would look at each other and scratch our heads wondering what he was looking at. What it boiled down to was that he stayed pretty much near the center circle and was rarely in the right spot to even have a decent look at the play.

I agree with you to an extent about the involvement pf players at any given time. You'd be surprised ( or maybe not) at the amount of crap that goes on "off ball". Unfortunately, it doesn't get called near as much as it should, because all of the official's attention is in the vicinity of the ball. Then, when the person initiallly wronged tries to retaliate, they generally get caught and carded for Unsporting , or worse, Violent Conduct.


I've seen a few of those, believe me. That's one of the things I appeciate about the double-dual ( 3 whistle) system used in most states for high school soccer. You may get stuck with a "center-dweller", but as long as your side refs are running, the offside line and most of the fouls still get covered.

Hockey In Phoenix, Give Me A Break ...
 

You're right. That was before southern expansion ruined the NHL. Gordie Howe played here in Connecticut, on a team called the Whalers. Now the Whalers are called the Hurricanes and play in North Carolina, a real hockey hotbed, not.