What Are You Gonna Do?

[Remington]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Let me put it this way. My late father was a carpenter for 53 years and I am a retired structural design engineer and worked my way through engineering school as a construction worker. Meaning if you have straight hair, I can verbally curl it; if you have curly hair I can verbally straighten it, because I have been on construction sites all of my life and you get us to the crude language that is sometimes heard on construction sites. You get my drift.

That said, the F-word is an automatic FTF when I am calling JrHS, HS, college, and youth basketball games. That has been my position for the 43 years that I have officiated basketball and the soon to be 22 years of umpiring HS and youth baseball and fast pitch softball.

MTD, Sr.

I have been a commercial lender for over a decade and am on construction sites and deal with contractors on a daily basis so I completely understand the language. Maybe that is why I am not as taken back by the use of the F word to the point of calling a FTF and an ejection. It is always a TF in my games, but the ejection seems extreme in most realistic scenerios to me. I'm not saying you are in anyway wrong, I just wanted to hear your rationale. Thank you for the insight.

[NCHSAA]

Great thoughts and discussions. Thanks!

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Remington

I have been a commercial lender for over a decade and am on construction sites and deal with contractors on a daily basis so I completely understand the language. Maybe that is why I am not as taken back by the use of the F word to the point of calling a FTF and an ejection. It is always a TF in my games, but the ejection seems extreme in most realistic scenerios to me. I'm not saying you are in anyway wrong, I just wanted to hear your rationale. Thank you for the insight.

If a player says "F you!" to an opponent (or me), I'm probably going flagrant.
Most other F-bombs will be a regular T.
A few will just get a quick word from the ref with rabbit ears (me).

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Adam

If a player says "F you!" to an opponent (or me), I'm probably going flagrant.
Most other F-bombs will be a regular T.
A few will just get a quick word from the ref with rabbit ears (me).

I take this stance for the most part. I live in a metropolitan area where colorful language is often used by more than the participants of a game. If any language is directed towards me or a partner, they are treading on thin ice, but that has never happened to me in that fashion. Comments amongst teammates, I might have a "talk to" if it is relatively quiet or not very loud. But any action where it is heard by everyone outside of an injury, I am likely going to penalize. I have yet to ever hear something that I felt was flagrant on its own when it comes to language. Maybe that day will come, it just has not happened yet.

Peace

[Adam]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

I take this stance for the most part. I live in a metropolitan area where colorful language is often used by more than the participants of a game. If any language is directed towards me or a partner, they are treading on thin ice, but that has never happened to me in that fashion. Comments amongst teammates, I might have a "talk to" if it is relatively quiet or not very loud. But any action where it is heard by everyone outside of an injury, I am likely going to penalize. I have yet to ever hear something that I felt was flagrant on its own when it comes to language. Maybe that day will come, it just has not happened yet.

Peace

I have, but it was in a football game.

It was not the F-bomb, though.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Adam

I have, but it was in a football game.

It was not the F-bomb, though.

In a football game I am much more tolerant of bad language as most people have no idea what is said in the middle of the field. And that also means my tone can be very different as well, without the bad language of course.

Peace

[Adam]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

In a football game I am much more tolerant of bad language as most people have no idea what is said in the middle of the field. And that also means my tone can be very different as well, without the bad language of course.

Peace

I am, too. This was not a case where tolerance was prudent; I'll leave it at that.

[BryanV21]

This situations seems pretty obvious. There is nothing in the rules that states the defender can't stand there, so you allow it. BUT make sure to pay attention for foul play.

If the coach says something about the player being there, then politely tell him/her "I understand the concern, but unfortunately there is nothing in the rule book that prevents the defender from standing in that spot. But I assure you, I'll make sure there isn't any foul play here."

Personally, I'm a fan of preventative officiating (such as talking to the players who are close to violations like three seconds), so I completely understand wanting to do something to get the defender out of there. But let's not put ourselves in situations that aren't backed up by the rules, and therefore could lead to more problems.

One person earlier in this thread said that if the defender does say something, award the offense another free throw. The place that hurts a team the most is on the scoreboard, so if you affect that then you're probably all good.

BTW, if the defender is out of hand with his words to the shooter, then give him a tech for taunting. I can't imagine giving the other team another free throw, as well as a tech against them, isn't going to help clean things up.