A Taste of the Big Time......

[grunewar]

My assignor/trainer calls me last week and asks if I am free to do a GV afternoon game at the Verizon Center (home of the Wizards). Me = "SURE!" I was honored to be considered!

I am by far the junior guy of the six officials. Two games and I am U2 for GV. We get there early and wait, and wait, and wait. The R1 (my game) finally arrives and we're running late and he goes to use the restroom (R2 - boys V) hides his equipt bag. He comes out of the restroom and goes nuts - WHY WASN'T ANYBODY WATCHING IT? WHAT THE F? CALL SECURITY! etc. After a few minutes and some choice words, R2 returns his bag......payback will be bad R1 says......

We do the pregame and take the court - seating capacity = 18,000, we have maybe 300! Floor was great - very forgiving (easy on feet). Court was wide and long - worked up a good sweat. Fox 40 was lacking in a bldg this size no matter how much air I put in it! Took me a while to adjust to where the scoreboard was - if you're the C and look up you see the bottom of the jumbotron - nothing else. As the L and you can see ok, but it's best to use the long scoreboards along the side/back of the arena. Took some getting used to. Loved the clock on the top of the backboard. Teams weren't great, but my partners said I did good. Still things to work on as always.

We go back to locker room for our postgame chat. BV officials are departing. R1 then notices he forgot his towel. Hmmm, payback time? R1 uses R2's towel to dry after his shower. We then go watch the BV game. It ends and we all head back to the locker room. R2 notices his wet towel hanging with his stuff......hysterical. Of course, we had to go find him a towel. Took forever. It was excellent fun!

Met several from the media, coaches, the Wizards GM, Ernie Grunfeld, Sixers FWD, Elton Brand and many other Sixers - they are so friggin big! Wow!

After that we all went for dinner and then returned to the arena to watch the Sixers vs Wizards as they comped us lower level 100 level seats.

All in all, for a guy starting his fourth year, an excellent day of much learning, growing, and camaraderie!

Thanks for all your help guys. I couldn't believe how relaxed I was during the game. Hey, I was even designated to make the toss.

This was maybe my one and only shot at the "big time." But, one never knows......

PS - it did have one sour note as Abe Pollin, longtime owner of the Wizards passed away on this day and there were some long faces in the arena.