Years ago, I was doing a rec league game and former NBA player Maurice Lucas' oldest son, Maurice Jr. (Reece) was in the game. Maurice was watching from right next to the bench.

The other team was shooting a two shot foul. After the first shot, which missed, Reece jumped into the lane, leaped up and "ripped down" the rebound, yelling as he did it. He then stood there with the ball while he realized there was another shot.

Maurice yelled from the seats, "Reece, get your head in the game." Reece looked real sheepish as he handed the ball to my partner. Maurice then said, "nice board, though".

Here's another one: prior to a game, I noticed the center for one of the teams (girls varsity level) was wearing her watch. I told her to remove it. She walked over to the stands and handed it to her dad, who was sitting a few rows up.

During the first quarter, my partner and I called her for 3 seconds at least four times. After the fourth, her dad yelled, "let her put her watch back on".

The other night, 9-10 girls, ball out-of-bounds. I say "Red!" and point in the appropriate direction. Nobody moves, they all just stare. I try again: "Red!" and this time I point at the spot for the player to take it out. A little girl in a white shirt quickly steps to the spot. I say again, "Red!" and look at her with raised eyebrows. She keeps standing there, holding her hands out expectantly.
I try one more time, "Red!" Apparently she thought that I was either color blind or not too bright, because she grabbed the front of her own shirt and stretched it out in my direction (so I could see it better?) and said, "I'm white."
__________________

It's these types of games where we measure our progress as officials.

Boys HS varsity, 2nd round (of three) state playoffs.
Thirteen minutes left in warmup prior to start of game.

WHAM! Monster dunk by blue #42, star center on #2 ranked team at that level in the state.

I get his # and go to the coach (A), who is visiting with the opposing coach (B). I said:
"Coach, we are going to have to start with a technical on #42 for a pre-game dunk."

Coach A: "Was it pretty?"

Me: "Oh ya, a 360 from just inside the free throw line."

Coach A: "Well, OK. As long as it was pretty."

The teams were hyped for the game and we had 3 block/charge calls in the first 3 minutes. The first 2 went against team A, the third went to team B. Coach B decided at that time that he wanted a "T", too. I accomidated him, and It was a great game.

Blackhawk


[Edited by Blackhawk357 on Feb 20th, 2003 at 08:46 AM]

Laughing at myself
 

A couple of years ago, I had a ninth grade boys game at 4:00pm followed by a boys JV game at 6:00pm at a different school. I dressed at work and left early to get to the first game. After the game I just changes back into my brown dress shoes and hustled over to the next game, barely making it on time. It never occurred to me to change shoes and my partner never said anything. Did the whole game in my brown dress shoes.

Then my first varsity boys assignment came up. I was psyched. Got to the game an hour and a half ahead of time. Met with the other officials and go to the dressing room. We talk, I get much needed advice and begin to change into the stripes. I look into my travel bag and I neglected to pack my referee pants. Fortunately, I was wearing black dockers to the game, but I have to laugh about the absentmindedness that came over me.

Re: Laughing at myself
 

Unfortunately, I find that I have increasing episodes of absentmindedness as I get older. Fortunately, I have had many of these episodes, but can't remeber them.

This isn't funny, it's pathetic!

Padgett's story reminded me of one. Girls HS Varsity scrimmaging boys Freshman team. I notice one of the girls on the floor has a watch on. I point it out to one of the coaches, who is refereeing. The next time down, the girls have a fast break, and the watch wearer is racing down the court on the wing. As she goes by the coach/ref says to her, "Hey, what time do you have?" She immediately stops, comes over to the coach, tells him the time, then takes off again.

Let's see, I've got two stories, and they both involve naked fannies...

1) At a hot, miserable womens softball tournament that was running about 2 hours behind. One entire team lined up between innings and did a group chant:

"Potato chips, potato chips, munch, munch, munch. Mr. Umpire, here's your lunch."

And they all mooned me.


2) After refereeing a JV girls game (early in my refereeing career), we're relaxing in the coaches room. (Typically they put referees in the visitor's locker room - teacher's room.) Of course, the blinds to the room are all down, and the visiting JV team is showering and changing into their street clothes. My partner is leaning back in his chair back against the wall. Unfortunately, it caused one of the blinds to quickly retract back to the top. (thwip! thwip! thwip!)

You ain't ever seen young girls move so fast in a locker room...

I thought..
 

That these type of games are where we measure our body fat.

Re: I thought..
 

You mean using a caliber? ;)

I hope YOU didn't see young girls move so fast, I hope you all immediately turned your backs, I hope no parents got the idea that there was anything even remotely resembling intent behind this little escapade...

I hope from then on, you were in a room AWAY from any possibility for this to ever happen again.

That's classic! :D

I was working a rec game a few weeks ago that came down to the wire. Maybe 3 seconds left, B down by 3 points.

We had a bonus situation for team A, and I administered the 1-1.

The shot was missed, and a team B player rebounded.

And all ten players stood still, thinking there was another shot.

Unfortunately, the timer didn't start the clock, either.

We stood there for a while and finally the guy with the ball realized that I wasn't moving. I actually found the whole situation funny, since these were high school alumni teams who spent the whole day trying to tell me how to officiate (I only gave out three technicals :) ). Finally, the timer started the clock and the game ended. Very anticlimactic.

Rich

I didn't add that you've never seen referees move so fast, either. It was all completely harmless, nothing ever came of it.

We don't get the luxury of choosing our room, the school and the association get to work that out.