Thursday bad cop, Friday good cop
 

My partner had a technical last night. Visiting head coach.

I'm T, opposite. We're at the other end of the floor from the coach. Shot goes up from the corner, partner no-calls, coach wants a foul. He's vocal, but it's nothing unusual. Of course, I'm just hearing this cause I'm looking into the paint.

Whistle, there goes partner, whack. Fascinating.

I have no idea why he called it, but I heard the exchange and heard my partner tell him he was 8 feet on the court out of the box. OK.

Partner and coach are having a controlled discussion, so in the interest of keeping things moving, I get a shooter and administer the FTs. By then, apparently my partner had enough of the exchange, so he went to the division line opposite. I went tableside on the second throw and as soon as it was completed, I went to the coach.

He vented to me for 20 seconds or so and I said absolutely nothing. I just listened, but it was the kind of listening where I couldn't tell you much of what he said afterwards. Finally, he said, "where am I supposed to go?" pointing at his box, which looked to be the normal 14-feet size. I said, "well, right now I need you to sit on the bench, since you no longer have a box."

At halftime, the home AD said he had just remarked to a colleague how the coach was 8-10 feet on the court waving his arms and yelling right before my partner whacked him. And my partner said he wouldn't have called a technical except it was hard not to see him with his white shirt flailing about all the way out onto the court.

The visiting team put the home team away in the second half. Had a nice chat during the last possession with the visiting coach. I like him and his program -- he just lost it for a moment. I wished him well next week, he asked where I was working and told me he appreciated me and that "you always do a good job." At least he didn't emphasize "you" like a coach did a few years ago when my partner whacked him.

Bad cop one night, good cop the next. Today I'm off and am taking my kid to the movies.

Going to see Coaches in Wonderland?

Does anyone else not like it when a partner does this after you whack a coach?

It depends on what the partner does. Somebody has to be over by that coach, and if the coach is going to vent it'll be to that partner. If the partner throws me under the bus (e.g., "I dunno coach, I didn't see you do anything wrong"), then yeah, I'll have a problem with that.

It also depends on the nature of the venting. If the coach keeps moaning about whatever earned him (usually 'him' ;)) the T, then we need to put that behind us. If he wants to whinge for a moment about the T, that's fine; partner will need to put a timer on that too, though.

So: it depends.

If you're an insecure official, yes. As Rich said, he just listened. It's called trusting your partners. I'll guess that Rich at the first opportunity relayed the coahescomments.


Nice job Rich.

Maybe if you don't trust your partner.

My partner, both Thursday and Friday, is my "regular." We worked 25-30 games together this season (out of the 49 I've worked). He's also my best friend. The odds of me throwing him under the bus (or vice versa) is zero.

I have to go over there and get the coach on the bench. Part of that is that he's going to complain about the technical, about my partner. Me jumping in and being aggressive there will do nothing but exacerbate the situation -- if I have to call a second technical foul, I certainly don't want to contribute to it. So I did what I always do -- stand there, pretend to listen and care (if he says anything over the line, I would shut it down, immediately), and when he talks himself out, remind him of the box. Remember the Far Side cartoon that is captioned "what a cat hears"? That's what it's like, for the most part.

This same technique is useful on the baseball diamond, where coaches come out on the field to "argue" calls. If you stay quiet and not say anything, the coach will talk himself out quickly or start repeating himself and then you can have a civil discussion. If you try to talk over the coach, he'll think you (1) aren't approachable and (2) are being defensive.

"stand there, pretend to listen and care" Priceless, I can picture you intently looking into the coaches eyes, tears starting to form in yours as you listen to the sad story!:D