Captains meeting

[Rich]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

I do not want to be approached by players, that is what their coach is for. And I hardly have a problem talking to coaches. But considering the things I read you say about situations, I certainly cannot be seen as any more unapproachable than you are (and I do not mean that in a bad way before someone takes it that way). You put up with a lot less crap than I do.

Peace

I actually want to be approachable to players, provided it's not to whine about individual calls.

I'm a lot more mellow than I used to be the first 15 years I worked. I had two situations this week where I would've whacked the coach/player 10 years ago. The first was an assistant coach that accused me of fouling out a player (on a call I didn't even make) during a timeout and instead of engaging him, I turned my back and walked away. The second was a kid who threw his arms in the air and disagreed pretty vehemently after I called a foul on him and I had a few words with him rather than calling a technical -- as I reported, his coach told me "I'm sorry about that, I'll take care of him." The other coach wanted a technical called, but then again of course he did.

I suppose I seem pretty inflexible on the first name thing and there's a chance I'm intentionally winding people up on this thread , but mainly it's just a quick chuckle under my breath on the court and I could easily work with Jeff and others anywhere. I'll admit it and let it go -- it's really not that big a deal.