Reporting the shooter
 

I report a foul last night, the PA guy goes, “fouls on #32.”
As the table hits the horn, I notice white 32 is at the FT line, so I flash a 22 from the C :o
PA guys goes, “THIS TIME… the fouls on #22.”

We grab our jackets at the half & I apologize to the bookkeeper for my mistake. PA guy is smiling, I tell him that I do a pretty decent job of embarrassing myself & didn’t need his assistance. He knew exactly what I meant as his smile was turned upside down.

Besides not screwing up to begin with, how would you handle this situation?

I would have either ignored it (I earned it) or just what you did. I would have said it with a smile, though.

Unless his tone was more sarcastic, then there's no way I'd ignore.

I've had 2 different PA guys this year that would actually call the number before it was reported. Neither ever got one wrong, so I guess you could say they restricted themselves to the obvious, but I see this as a potential problem.

I'd tell the PA to wait until the foul is reported.

His tone was very sarcastic, "THIS TIME... the fouls on #22."

I did bring it on myself though :) and I havent done THAT in at least 2 seasons. But still, you dont get a free shot at me because of my error... well, unless its the coach/players/fans of course :D I dont expect that from my table crew though! Live & learn.

I probably would have done what you did, then.

I did PA years ago, before I got into officiating. The guy behind the mike made a bad choice of words, which is unprofessional. It sounds like you handled it just fine, tref.

The better wording, IMO, would be, "Correction...foul on #22..." It's accurate, and doesn't show up anyone.

I volunteer officiated an alumni soccer game last fall, and the PA was a buddy that was needling all of us ("there's a lot of hands on hips out there"), including myself. That's fine. In a professional setting, though, it's a different story.

Perhaps All Too Obvious
 

We pregame this with the table, because so often the scoreboard operator, observing that a foul has been called, anticipates who committed the foul, then advances the team foul count by one, say from 5 to 6. We, on way to the table, identify the 6 on the board, report the foul, then signal a one-and-one upcoming, thereby running the risk of a possible correctable error situation.
With scoreboard operator, official book, and PA announcer all waiting for us to report the foul before taking action, things don't run the risk of entering into brainfart status.
Side Note Mentioned Before: Bookkeeper is also informed that the hand with which we signify the number is the same side as the bench of the team that committed the foul. This along with saying the color, of course. Since doing this we have had several table officials (:D) express their appreciation for this little clarifying gesture. Really comes in handy in especially noisy gyms. And when visiting team shows up in homecourt whites, like two weeks ago. :mad: (Doesn't work well in states where two-handed reporting is used.)

Never heard that one, but I like it!! Dont think I'll try incorporating it in my game until the offseason though. I cant even get the color/number right :rolleyes:

I would want to be well practiced at it before I tried telling the table about it. I'd had to tell them about it then screw it up in the game.

It wouldn't have bothered me. I dish it out pretty well on the court and away from the court, so it's just right that I be able to take it.