Buzzer Beater or not?

[bainsey]

Originally Posted by fortmoney

does the score influence your decision on this?

Emphatic NO. We do our jobs with what's in front of us, not what's behind us.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Not sure what you mean by "That way the kids decide the outcome."

I think we all know what he means, and it's a naïve thought process.

In a close game, battled over 32 minutes, things we do will indeed affect the game's outcome. It could happen in the first half (and therefore go largely unnoticed) or in the last few minutes (and become under a microscope).

Human memory can only take on so much, but with so much minutia going on in a basketball game, when the final score is close, you can almost always look back and see that, if you called something differently, the result could have been different. Since most only remember the last part of a game, though, that's why we wind up with statements like, "the kids decide the outcome." In truth, though, there's a lot taking place in the totality of the game, and everyone on the floor plays a role. Like the players on the floor, we officials can only do our best.