Its All About Me?

[fiasco]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

In my world there is big difference between teaching and mentoring a new/young official on how to officiate vs. getting into a debate with a veteran official who is misapplying a rule.

One has nothing to do with the other. The thread was about veterans who are too "...fill in the blank..." to bring along new officials not a thread about hard-headed officials who won't admit when they are wrong.

Fair enough. Then, back on topic, yes, I have encountered my fair share of veteran officials who see a rookie and automatically assume they are not worth spending time talking to, mentoring, helping, whatever term you want to use, and therefore don't want to "waste" their time trying to do so. They'll encounter someone new and say things like "spoken like a true rookie," or something to that effect, displaying a general disdain for officials with fewer games under their belt. Or they will have a poor experience with a rookie or group of rookies, then assume all new officials are like that.

Whether that has to do with money, insecurity or whatever, I think that largely depends on the individual official. Everyone has their own motivations for acting the way they do.

That being said, I have encountered the exact opposite, officials who will go out of their way to give you an unbiased assessment of your skills and help you navigate the land mine of egos within the association. I found one such official, and it's made all the difference in my young career.

So, in the end, I think none of this has anything to do with basketball, and everything to do with the fact that some people are just dicks.