OT - Funny stuff

[Mark Padgett]

Here's one from about 10 years ago. Called a kid for carrying the ball on his first three possessions. They weren't even close calls, because his violations were really blatant. Coach requests and is granted a timeout after the third call. He comes over to me and says, "That's just the way he dribbles. If you're going to call that, he'll get called for it every time he has the ball!"

My reply was "Then I guess that's what's going to happen coach. Maybe you should do something about it." The coach just looked at me and shrugged.

The kid got the ball about 10 more times during the game, dribbled about six of those times and got called for a carry all six. Every time my partner or I made the call, the coach just shook his head.

I always wondered what happened in all the games that kid played in before this one.

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Here's one from about 10 years ago. Called a kid for carrying the ball on his first three possessions. They weren't even close calls, because his violations were really blatant. Coach requests and is granted a timeout after the third call. He comes over to me and says, "That's just the way he dribbles. If you're going to call that, he'll get called for it every time he has the ball!"

My reply was "Then I guess that's what's going to happen coach. Maybe you should do something about it." The coach just looked at me and shrugged.

The kid got the ball about 10 more times during the game, dribbled about six of those times and got called for a carry all six. Every time my partner or I made the call, the coach just shook his head.

I always wondered what happened in all the games that kid played in before this one.

Surprised the opposing coach didn't instruct his team to give it to that kid so they could set up out of bounds plays under their basket.

[BillyMac]

Varsity game this past season at a small suburban/rural school that I've worked at dozens of times in the past twenty-nine years. The table in this gym is attached to the bleachers. Also, there is a folding door that divides the gym, which means that the bleachers are also divided, and for the past twenty-eight years the table has been on the bleachers to the left of the dividing folding door. Since I'm the umpire, I really don't notice the table during warmups. The game begins and I have the first whistle, a foul, and I hustle over to the reporting area and start signaling to the table, until I notice that there is no table where I'm looking and signaling. I look to my right and the veteran crew at the table are all laughing at me. Sure enough they decided, after almost thirty years, to move the table to the bleachers to the right of the dividing folding door. From that point on, every time I report a foul to the table, the crew waves their hands like they're trying to get my attention. During a time out I spoke to the crew. They told me that the same thing had been happening all season long, and that I hadn't been the first official to report to a nonexistent table and crew.

[BillyMac]

My local board works a high school scholarship tournament, gratis, the Doc Hurley Classic, in the XL Center (former Hartford Civic Center). "Big Time" court (UCONN). The first year we worked there, one of our veteran officials got confused and reported a foul to the press table, that was on the other side of the court from the scorer's table. He never lived that down.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

My local board works a high school scholarship tournament, gratis, the Doc Hurley Classic, in the XL Center (former Hartford Civic Center). "Big Time" court (UCONN). The first year we worked there, one of our veteran officials got confused and reported a foul to the press table, that was on the other side of the court from the scorer's table. He never lived that down.

That happens to me all the time in our local kids rec league. In fact, a couple of times I've reported to the television crew.

Yeah, right.

[Mark Padgett]

Probably my funniest game yet was a boys HS rec game. One of the coaches came out dressed as Bozo the clown. At first, I didn't notice it because he just looked like a lot of other coaches. About 10 seconds into the game, he jumped straight up off the bench and yelled about a call. Unfortunately for him, when he jumped up, his head got cut off by a ceiling fan. It rolled out onto the court and was picked up by one of the players. He bounced it and the nose hit the floor, giving off a squeak. He asked me if they could use this as the ball for the rest of the game. I told him we couldn't because it was only a 28.5. He said what if they all played like girls? I thought about it for a moment and said OK. The rest of the game went fine but with a lot of squeaks. At one time, one of the players tried to dunk but his fingers were caught in the eye sockets and he couldn't let go of the head. He hung on the rim and I had to call a T. Final score was 4-2.

Can you tell I ran out of meds?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Early 1990's (1992 to be exact): Michigan AAU Girls' 14U Championship game, with about 200 hundred people in attendance (The winner qualifies for the National Championship tournament; actually the Michigan AAU's qualifiying tournament is so large that it qualifies the top three teams, but I digress.) and Team B's HC is starting to get more and more annoying as the game progresses and we have only played about five minutes. I am the T and Team B's PG (she is also Team B's Captain) is dribbling the ball up the court and while she is still in her team's backcourt he starts up again and I tell her that she needs to get her HC under control. Without stopping her dribble she stops and yells to her coach: "Dad! () Shut up, you are embarrasing me." The stands erupts into laughter, B-HC's face turns bright RED, and he doesn't say a word the rest of the game.

And on this Father's Day I somehow still feel sorry for him, .

MTD, Sr.


P.S. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! to all of us father's out there.

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Early 1990's (1992 to be exact): Michigan AAU Girls' 14U Championship game, with about 200 hundred people in attendance (The winner qualifies for the National Championship tournament; actually the Michigan AAU's qualifiying tournament is so large that it qualifies the top three teams, but I digress.) and Team B's HC is starting to get more and more annoying as the game progresses and we have only played about five minutes. I am the T and Team B's PG (she is also Team B's Captain) is dribbling the ball up the court and while she is still in her team's backcourt he starts up again and I tell her that she needs to get her HC under control. Without stopping her dribble she stops and yells to her coach: "Dad! () Shut up, you are embarrasing me." The stands erupts into laughter, B-HC's face turns bright RED, and he doesn't say a word the rest of the game.

And on this Father's Day I somehow still feel sorry for him, .

MTD, Sr.


P.S. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! to all of us father's out there.

Classic

[Back In The Saddle]

Working a Soph. boys game a few years ago. Small crowd, the kind where you can hear individual voices. Clearly. Dad from the visiting team has a bee in his bonnet about something, and is making a real spectacle of himself. After one call, and a particularly obvious bit of daddy commentary, visiting team 2 guard turns to me and says sheepishly, "I'm sorry. My dad gets a little out of control sometimes." I just smiled at him and said, "No worries. I had a dad too". Kid was my best friend for the rest of the game.

[Mark Padgett]

I have a kind of "stock" saying when a kid takes a shot after the whistle for a violation. It's "don't shoot after the whistle. It confuses the scorer and he's not too sharp to begin with." About three years ago I had a kid respond, "Yeah, I know. He's my dad."

[Judtech]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Early 1990's (1992 to be exact): Michigan AAU Girls' 14U Championship game, with about 200 hundred people in attendance (The winner qualifies for the National Championship tournament; actually the Michigan AAU's qualifiying tournament is so large that it qualifies the top three teams, but I digress.) and Team B's HC is starting to get more and more annoying as the game progresses and we have only played about five minutes. I am the T and Team B's PG (she is also Team B's Captain) is dribbling the ball up the court and while she is still in her team's backcourt he starts up again and I tell her that she needs to get her HC under control. Without stopping her dribble she stops and yells to her coach: "Dad! () Shut up, you are embarrasing me." The stands erupts into laughter, B-HC's face turns bright RED, and he doesn't say a word the rest of the game.

And on this Father's Day I somehow still feel sorry for him, .

MTD, Sr.


P.S. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! to all of us father's out there.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner