Joey Crawford....I think he called a block
 

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I think the center was about to call a charge, too.

Right...couple steps to the left, he was coming with it.

And he would have gotten it right from our angle.

Would like to see the angle from the baseline, but it certainly looks like a charge from the camera angle.

Maybe those arms coming up force the call to be a block. Otherwise, it would appear PC is the correct call. Jmho.

That's not something Joey could see from his angle, IMO.

Incorrect call by Joey, IMO.

Slot should have been Primary on this call, IMO.

That is a charge all the way. We penalize the defense way too much.

Peace

Accuracy of the call aside, where can I find that mechanic listed!? :eek:

Personally, I think it's great to see a little style from the officials. Soon you'll see none of that at all and, IMO, the game will be worse off for it.

Style is great, I agree officials should have a personality and not be robots on the floor, but wow!

A few of these league-wide each season should be ok.

When you get the play right...LOL

Ya, that helps. :)

In fact, it helps all of the time! LOL

The only thing I can think of is that there's something from the endline that we can't see from this angle. Otherwise I'm not sure how this can be anything but a charge. I'll have to take a look at it later today and see if they showed another angle and try to put it up.

From USAToday - Chris Strauss:

NBA referee Joey Crawford has never been afraid to draw attention to himself when making a call, as evidenced by this blocking foul against Los Angeles Lakers guard Chris Duhon in Tuesday night's game versus Indiana.

The Pacers won 79-77 despite a 40-point night from Kobe Bryant, but clearly Crawford was the star of the game.



Nuf Sed

Just a sportswriter looking for something. The officials are an easy target these days. Officials were much more flamboyant when I started watching basketball in the 1970s, but I can't imagine any writer back then saying anything about how Earl Strom tweet-tweet-tweeted every call. People (writers) seemed to have more respect and less of a TMZ mindset back then.

The one thing I've seen at the HS level is that things have swung WAY too far in the other direction -- anything remotely close is called a charge. Back when I started (in 1987, which seems like only yesterday) the defender needed to have his feet nailed to the floor and be there for a few seconds or it was a block.

There needs to be a happy middle ground based on actually officiating the defense and understanding the concepts of legal guarding position and the responsibilities of both players when a collision happens.

OHSAA has told us explicitly NOT to do this mechanic.

Fist on hips for a block? You won't find me donig it any other way (save for the theatrics shown here). The "by the book way" IMO is a weak signal (that and the PC signal).

You and I think alike.

The hands on hips is a weak mechanic. So is the hand behind the head on a PC foul. A crisp punch in the other direction is a much stronger call.

I had a block on a drive down the lane last night. Big collision, both players on the floor. I probably didn't ham it up as much as Crawford, but I remember banging the hips twice, saying, "Block, Block."

There's nothing wrong with selling a close one. On the video shown, it seems to me like he's overselling one that he probably got wrong.

I hear that opinion a lot, and then no one hardly says a word when done on a call. Like others said I would do the same as Joey other than the running half way up the court or the frequency, but the fist part would be done the exact same. I do not have the time to fix my hands in a way where they can be open and touch my hips.

Peace

Technically, I was "taught" the formal book call, but the hands on the hips beyond being weak just feels somewhat awkward and unnatural to do. I have always though the fists are perfectly fine as long as the mechanic is done correctly and the fists don't make their way around front.


Understatement of the week?

Chuck Berry would be proud.

Agree....he was in the spot for a long time before the contact.

Greatest. Incorrect. Call. Ever!

I don't disagree but we will get chastised here for not doing it by the book.

Honestly, I've never ever had anyone get on me for not doing this by the book. And if I was, it's probably a hit I'd be willing to take. Then again, I can count on one hand the amount of people that call this by the book (as far as a block goes...still see the PC mechanic all the time). Hell, the only person I can think of that does it "by the book" regularly is Dick Bervetta.

When I say "here" I'm not talking about all of Houston but my chapter in particular. The greater area is probably too big for anybody to care once you break into varsity.

APG - Didn't you say (maybe last season) that the League has different rules regarding block/charges like this - specifically related to the gather that begins the trying motion, or something? Or am I making that up? Like that the defender had to be at the spot not just before the shooter left the ground, but before they gather for the try? If that was the case, I could see why a block per a rule like that.

Funny you ask as I just mentioned this in another thread. ;)

A defender establish his position before the offensive player starts his upward motion with the ball to shoot or pass.

Totally just saw that, and was about to answer my own question with your qoute from that thread.;) Thanks.

To clarify...they don't like the repeated banging of the hips and general hot dogging on the call. One of the states pet peeves.

Just want to state that this isn't par for any signaling in the NBA or Joe Crawford

And we all agree that he O player traveled at the beginning of the move to the basket. Left foot is pivot foot, clealy picks up left foot before releasing ball to start dribble. Travel. Then he charged. This is a perfect example where if the travel rule were officiated as written, we could prevent a lot of other crap--in this case, a terrible block call.

You identified the wrong foot as the pivot foot. The right foot was the pivot foot in this play per NBA rules, and a case can be made (not that I'd judge it this way) that per NCAA/NF rules, the player didn't have a pivot foot (if you determined he gathered the ball with a foot on the floor).

I had a supervisor tell me that the 'open-hand to waist' block signal for a man of my size looked very.....un-masculine (to keep things PC).

Could be so kind as to tell us how the travelling rules are written for the NBA?

Here's the play with slow motion at the end and an extra camera angle shown (the only other one they broadcasted):

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Thank you, was just thinking the same thing.

And wasn't this horse beaten to death and beyond in the other thread?

Not in the NBA. Methinks you should reread the travel rule.

He did the scissor-step before dribbling so I would have a travel in my games.

Not necessarily saying it wasn't a travel...just that per NBA rules, he identified the wrong foot as the pivot.

To be blunt...

I have officiated in three parts of the country - I have belonged to 5 high school associations due to military assignments. From my collective experience, when someone is worried about this - with all the other stuff we have to worry about in high school basketball - they normally suck at officiating.

Tell that to our commissioners that got poed watching this antic at at the state finals a few years ago and was brought up explicitly at the next state meeting.

Let me ask you this: does your association have bigger fish to fry? Are the powers that be that don't like this still officiating? If so, are they good?

What would you choose:

a. A great official that uses the "fist to hips" block signal repeatedly
b. A good official that has good signals
c. An average official that has great signals

I'm not saying you can't have one without the other, but we are often guilty of worrying about the ants instead of taking care of the elephants.

Yes, that would be a travel in any game I'm working.

These are the guys in charge of the state tournament and are not current officials.

Ohio HSAA is notorious in both basketball and football for having their own way to officiate the game (for example, the team control signal is expressly banned as it's "confusing"). And they would tell you they have plenty of great officials with good signals that they don't need to give tournament games to great officials with bad signals.

To me Crawford looks like a clown. I can't take that kind of officiating seriously outside of a Globetrotters game. But your mileage my vary. It certainly hasn't harmed Crawford's career.

I would think that for State Tournament games, they want good play callers first.

I have never heard fists or hands to the hips as a decisive reason for selecting one official over another. Someone has lost their perspective.

Sure, Joe Crawford likes to sell a call or two, but from the games I watch, but like that is highly unusual. In fact, if you look at his offensive foul calls, it's probably one of the most understated ones you'll see. The NBA, as a matter of fact, doesn't really have officials that ever go overboard.

The more demonstrative the gyrations, the more incorrect the call usually is ;)

The pool of good play callers is larger than the available officiating slots. The guy who looks professional is going to be picked over the guy who doesn't when they are both good at play calling.

Fair enough.

Agree with this. When I watch games that's one thing I notice. Do they have style? Style is hard to describe though.

Fwiw, I bang my hips once or twice on the preliminary signal but report it properly to the table.

Old Habits Die Hard ...
 

Pretty much the same for me, except I only bang my hips once at the site of the foul (preliminary signal), and then I report to the table with the proper signal.

Kind of a hair splitter - but definitely not a block, IMO.

And certainly NOT a travel. He's still dribbling when his right foot goes down. Then he steps forward with his left foot without lifting the right one. How can that be a travel?

I do think Joey C could have limited himself to THREE thrusts, though ;)

Gotta love it! :D

The travel occurs before he dribbles.