Mouthguard

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Refsmitty

Why do we officials make up our own rules?

Had one of our association trainers tell us that there is not water allowed during a 30 second time out

How do we newer officials take these guys serious when its obvious they don't spend enought time with the book?

I was told recently that an official told a coach (which still is debatable) that all the bench personnel had to sit in the coaching box.

Then again something tells me that many of these situations are overreactions to other comments by the officials and there are usually more to the story.

Like the other night we had just called a foul on a shooter where the ball went in the basket. Then as we were about to administer the FT, the team that fouled requested a timeout. After my partner signaled the timeout, I do what I always do and point to the shooter and indicate he was shooting and how many FTs he would shoot (I have been doing this for years without ever a problem). The player got "offended" and said something to his coach. When the coach approached me before he talked to his team and asked me, "what did he do?" I told him, "I was telling my partners he was shooting and how many so we would not forget out of the timeout." The coach said to me, "He is a little sensitive" and we both laughed.

So I am convinced that many of these stories are not all what they seem or if we were to talk to the official there would be some other part of that conversation that was left out. Players and coaches often hear what they want to hear and react to what they "think" they were told rather than react to what was actually said, which is why when I tell a player or coach something, I do not like them to be talking when I am and I not talking when they are talking. I am convinced that often is the case and there might have been more to the conversation than simply the mouthpiece coming out of his mouth. It might have been something that was said while the mouthpiece was out of his mouth.

Peace