Today I snapped!

[tomegun]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

Tom, not having been there and seen the guy, just going by what you posted..the guy asked for feedback. Did it start out with you giving him some criticism and him doing the "Yeah, but..." thing? Or did you go straight from "What have you got for me?" to snapping and drop-kicking his a$$?

If it was the first, good for you.

If it was the second, was he really that bad? Could you have gotten the point across to him that he was that bad without snapping and letting him walk out of there thinking YOU are the jerk?

Just wondering what all happened, not trying to attack you, Tom. I just know that some of MY best learning experiences have come through having to deal with officials like this guy - on the court or at camps as an evaluator/clinician.

It is probably hard for me to post how this whole thing went, but it had nothing to do with my mood or anything like that.

This guy talked a lot about how he was a good official and there is no such thing as a perfect official. I called him to stress professionalism, uniform, etc. He cuts me off before I finish - like he always does - and says something like, "Listen, I've been doing this for 20 years..."

There were two games on Friday night, a normal night for high school basketball, so this guy worked two games. My friend called me late that night and said we may have had a problem at the site. I called this guy on my way to the gym on Saturday to ask how things went. He said everything was OK, but one kid got hurt. I get to the gym and ask the tournament director how things went on Friday. He said everything was OK, but the crew was kind of shaky.

So we are sitting there on Saturday before he works. He is still telling me how good he is and I'm trying to warn him about talking himself into a bind. Remember, I spoke to him about his uniform and he tried to tell me he knew all of that. Well, his shoes looked like garbage, his pants were basically a dark dark grey, he had on a belt, he had on WHITE SOCKS and basically looked horrible.

He asked me if we are going to have a camp and questioned what clinicians (he couldn't even say that word) we are going to have. Once we told him he was like, "Yeah, it is good to have college officials be clinicians. I've been trained by college officials."

He finally works his game and is horrible. Oh, he is at a level we could work with and train, but then he pushed me too far. Up to this point, on the phone and before the game, he had been trying to talk over me - not letting me finish what I was saying - and was generally being a alpha male. It was kind of funny and I didn't have a problem with it - remember I warned him about talking and not being able to deliver.

After the game I was talking to his partner first. I was telling him some things he could work on. His partner was accepting the information without saying anything (he was nodding in agreement). Before I could get through with his partner, while I was in mid sentence, he asked what I had for him. Again, being aggressive even though he didn't deliver what he said he could. This is when I had had enough and told him if he wanted any feedback from me he was going to come at me differently. I told him he wasn't even close to being where he thought he was as an official.

So then I find out that a player got hurt on Friday and he didn't kill the clock like he should have. The player broke his leg!! The tournament director, who has future tournaments for us to work, doesn't want to see him.

There are other organizations that only worry about having warm bodies on the floor and I'm sure he can work with them. However, I will not be calling on him in the future.

And now you know the rest of the story.

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by tomegun

He cuts me off before I finish - like he always does - and says something like, "Listen, I've been doing this for 20 years..."

You could have stopped your explanation right there, tomegun. I gotcha loud and clear now. Sounds like a snapping might be what they guy needed. And I hope you took my questions in the way they were intended - not as an attack on your actions.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

You could have stopped your explanation right there, tomegun. I gotcha loud and clear now. Sounds like a snapping might be what they guy needed.

I hope you're right, but I doubt it. This kind of person is not really interested in improving, but merely wants credit for improving.

[tomegun]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

You could have stopped your explanation right there, tomegun. I gotcha loud and clear now. Sounds like a snapping might be what they guy needed. And I hope you took my questions in the way they were intended - not as an attack on your actions.

No, I knew the story was a long one and if I posted more it would be obvious why I snapped at him.

This guy will not get it. I'm sure he thinks I'm the one with the problem.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by tomegun

No, I knew the story was a long one and if I posted more it would be obvious why I snapped at him.

This guy will not get it. I'm sure he thinks I'm the one with the problem.

I once had to fire a pair of officials (in baseball). I was the new assignor and needed warm bodies. But the winning and losing team complained vehemently 3 weeks in a row and their stories were too consistent from team to team and week to week. Never met the guys, either. I would've loved to watch them work except I was covering a spot myself.

That was 3 years ago and I'll hopefully never assign again.