Basketball's toughest calls - anyone read it?
 

Anyone read this book? Review?

Amazon.com: Basketball's Toughest Calls: Block/Charge, Traveling, Contact/Displacement (9781582081335): Todd Korth, Ross Bray: Books

Never heard of it.

It likely doesn't have too much to offer to a veteran official.

IMHO, the toughest violation to call is travelling, and the toughest foul to call is the B/C.

It's not that I disagree, but was wondering if you would expound on your thoughts about travelling. Thanks!

The toughest call is to not toss a coach. :D

Seriously, I agree the toughest foul to call is the B/C. No question.

If you think about the violations that can be called, traveling stands alone in the complexity of the criteria used to call it.

The occurrence of the following are all easy to determine....

• OOB
• Any count
• thrower stepped inbounds
• FT didn't hit the rim
• player in the lane before the ball hit
• double (illegal) dribble
• kick
• backcourt
• GT/BI

These are easy to determine due to their black/white nature or their rather uncomplicated combination of factors to consider when it may occur. Of course, the backcourt rule is complicated but it is easy to call once you understand the rule.

Traveling, on the other hand, requires several elements to all align to call correctly....holding the ball relative to the release on a dribble/pass or the catch from dribble/pass relative to the foot movement (some of which is legal and some isn't).

True, but we can make it easy on ourselves by stopping the guessing. For me, if I dont have a clean look at the feet + ball status, then it didnt happen. I'd rather miss one that happened than call one that didn't.

That just proves the point. Just because you can't seen it clearly enough to see whether it happened or not doesn't mean that it didn't happen. It just means you didn't see it.

For all of the others, they're usually very easy to see and to judge.

Good Read
 

Three of us hear bought it last year and really liked it.

Officials at all three levels and M & W give their perspective on those three calls.

It was easy to read in short sessions and provoked good thought and some discussion when we got together.

I would recommend it to veterans and rookies.

Toughest call us to my wife after an early game that went OT.

My toughest call is calling me wife and telling her I'm stopping off at Hooters! http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra...es/2thumbs.gif

Sorry I couldn't say more when I originally posted, but I had two Varsity football games to prepare for.

Camron's points are right on the money.

I have never bought that a block/charge is that hard of a call. It usually calls itself if you referee the defense. I think it is one of the easier calls on many levels. I also think traveling is one of the tougher calls because players are often very fast and can do things that are hard to call in a split second, which is why this is often incorrectly called either way.

Peace

This...if we're refereeing the defense, this the block/charge call isn't too hard. And I totally agree with traveling...the higher the level, the faster players are able to do things and the harder it can be to determine the pivot foot.

Oh, I'm A Travelin' Man, Yes, I'm A Travelin' Man ...
 

Agree. Traveling is the toughest call in basketball.

I just don't find block/charge or traveling to be difficult calls to make.

For fouls, you get position, you referee the defense, you determine advantage/disadvantage, you make the call. Not everyone may agree but that's the breaks.

For violations, you stay wide enough to see the play, you know what the ball handler is allowed to do (has he dribbled?, pivot foot, etc.) and you know what violates and what doesn't.

Determining who a ball went OOB off of can be the most difficult call in the game.

Agreed, particularly since its a call that cannot be passed on. The only bailout is the rare go to the arrow. How many wrong oobs were re-played during the NBA playoffs? Too many.

The NBA only reviews those calls in the last few minutes of the half or game. I think those are reviewed because like everything else with replay everyone wants to dispute every one of those calls. That does not make that call very difficult or hard to determine. If OOBs calls are that hard, then you must not have games with 3 officials. No way that is a difficult call on the level of others. Then again this is about opinions. ;)

Peace

Regardless of the number of officials, when the ball comes out of a crowd, it is sometimes difficult/impossible to tell who touched it last.

Yeah, but that is not how many of them happen. And yes the number of officials does matter because the more you can focus on an area. Most of these calls are one or two players involved. I cannot say that is hard to call compared to other calls in the game.

Peace

Anybody who can't get an OOB call correct when there's only one player involved needs to GTF out of officiating.

But when two players are involved and both have hands near the ball, it can be very difficult to know who the ball touched last. It makes no difference how many officials are on the floor. It's always one official's call, not two or three.

And you're right wanja, that's exactly what the NBA allows replay of OOB calls during the closing minutes.

Not that many since they can only review plays in the final two minutes of the 4th and all of OT.

And I did not see that many. I cannot even think of any that were replays that were reviewed during the Finals or even the Conference Finals. I am sure it might have happened once, but not in any of those games.

Peace

That's what I was thinking...thanks.

Many thanks!!!

Sometimes, it's just hard to see it
 

For me, one of the hardest calls to get right, is the tap on the forearm of a jump-shooter. A1 makes his move, into the lane, or on the perimeter, and goes up for a jumpshot. B1 reaches up and towards the shooter's arm, and it's so difficult to be sure of the contact, which is often minor, but does affect the shot. Sometimes, a secondary indicator, such as the apparent terrible arc of the shot - short and flat - has to be considered, and that makes the call seem late.

I've changed my thinking on this, but only a little. I do think traveling is very hard to get right consistently because of the reasons stated above. But I think that because it happens so infrequently, basket interference (on a putback, in particular) is the most difficult. You're far away, you're usually at a weird angle, you're probably surprised that it's that close in the first place, and it's just one touch. When the ball is coming off the rim and the rebounder just taps it back, it can be very tough to judge if the ball was completely out of the cylinder or not.