Physical tests...

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by amusedofficial

Excellent points. I also note another comment that some of the guys who didn't do well on the physical test were long considered among the association's best officials. Now an arbitrary test has determined that reputations made on the court are no longer relevant? Because somebody invented a test? Where is the empirical evidence that 14 seconds in a shuttle run is significant enough to determine who does and who does not ref a basketball game?

Looks to me like an attempt to thin the ranks (no pun intended) and eliminate the competition by substituting arbitrary physical tests for valid game evaluation. If your partner is waddling to a meeting, he or she is waddling up and down the court, and it should be noted and acted on in evaluations. It is absurd to base officiating ability on a test imposed by a group of people who would naturally invent a test they could pass and declare it the minimum standard.

I've worked with gazelles who can memorize the rule book but who still know nothing about basketball

Or, like often happens, those reputations are no longer valid. It can take years for a reputation to change...either when the official is no longer able to keep up but keeps getting the top assignments or when the official has improved substantially but doesn't get better assignments. My guess is those officials, while considered by many to be top officials, haven't been recently seen on the court by many who think they're top.

Now, perhaps the threshold of passing was unreasonable but there is some level of fitness that should be a minimum....at some point, an official IS just too unfit to properly cover the game no matter how good of a play caller they are.