A Fan Shows His Ignorance
 

So, many of you know my story, but please allow me to share it for those who do not.

I am 58 yrs old. I played HS basketball, played Rec league, owned a team in rec league, coached in rec league, coached MS ball for 6 years, HS for 5 yrs which included my last year at the Varsity level. Then I became a referee 14 years ago. I run the local church league as the referee trainer. I have 7 officials that I have trained ( this year ). I am a board member on our HS association. Next year I will be the Secretary/Treasurer of the association.

I was refereeing the 1st round of the play offs in our church league. A1 drives to the basket B1 jumps straight up and A1 collides into B1. A1's shot misses. I've got nothing. Fan screams "WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT?"

We go the other way, after about 30 seconds there is a break in the action and we are headed back to where the fan was screaming, so I decided to explain to him Verticality. I know, I was wasting my time. So after I explained, he says " That's why you're refereeing here"...

It's a shame that they don't get it. I bet most fans believe the rules were written once and never changed until the 3 point line came into play.

Really ??? Seriously ???
 

A few weeks ago I actually heard a spectator shout, "He was forced out" (the NBA eliminated this rule in 1976-77).

Terrapins Fan: Situations like yours were the impetus for my "Most Misunderstood Basketball Rules" list. It's gone far beyond that, but that was the original impetus.

From my "list" introduction: This is a list of high school basketball rules that are often misunderstood by coaches, players, and parents. I developed this list over the past thirty years, officiating thousands of basketball games, listening to erroneous comments from players, coaches, and mostly from fans, and thinking to myself, "I wish I could stop the game and explain the real rule to them". This list is meant to educate those players, coaches, and fans. For example. A player is dribbling the ball in the backcourt and a fan is yelling, "Three seconds". Or, a player is inbounding the ball and a parent yells, "He's stepping on the boundary line". How many times have things like this happened to you? Don't you just want to blow the whistle, stop the game, and say, "There can't be a three second violation until the ball is in the frontcourt", or, "The player can step on the line, but not over the line".

You Should Have Given Him A Chance To Finish ...
 

... "because we want good officials, who know the rules, officiating our church league games".

Recently, a fan disagreed with a call I made, and yelled, "That's why you're doing Sophomore ball!" Of course, he didn't know that the night before and the night after I was on the floor for Varsity games for our largest schools' clasification. My choice to help mentor our newer officials by working Soph/JV games is appreciated by our assignors, and that's why I almost couldn't stop laughing at the fan's comment!

The Coaches Know ...
 

I'm in the same boat (helping my assigner with subvarsity games, I even worked a freshman game this season), but, luckily, I haven't received such comments. Too bad you can't yell back, "Why isn't your son playing varsity?". We can think it, but saying it aloud would be, of course, unprofessional.

Take that Cuban
 

Yours is an impressive resume for sure, but...you OWNED a rec league team? Was this due to your playing dominance of said team?:D

1. You can own a Rec team?

2. Rather than respectfully giving this fan a bit of insight into the rule....
I would have mentioned that you don't end a sentence with a preposition.

3. it’s not a shame they don't get it. Personally, I occasionally get great pleasure in the inane ramblings of these people. Being ignorant of the rules in any sport by stupid fan (especially when intoxicated), is as American as buying a hotdog at a baseball game!

It always struck me as a little odd that fans who scream things like that don't realize they're denigrating the entire game.

It almost makes me want to shout back "And yet you're still watching aren't you?"

In this case, "that" is used as a pronoun. That | Define That at Dictionary.com

I had that disappointed feeling Saturday night, looking up at my fellow townspeople.

I was on the floor for the Class A (biggest class, we go A-D) Boys State Championship game. I didn't work this game, just used my media credentials to gain floor access. There were about 5,000 people at the game, evenly matched between fans from both sides. One contigent was my hometown's school, the defending champs, where my son graduated from last June.

There were three clear-as-day charge calls. Each one, my townies got more irate than the last one. On the third one, people were irate and on their feet. Even though our guys were losing (and eventually lost), I couldn't believe they couldn't see what I saw. At halftime, I spoke with our assistant principal and district's assistant superitendent, both who officiate, and asked, "are we the only ones who know a charge when we see it?!"

Yes, our team was losing, but some of this stuff should be a simple as a ball-handler stepping on the sideline. No-one gets irate over that.

Foiled, Maybe an (AT) at the would have helped me.

Just another day at the office. To be honest, I don't know why you'd devote a thread to this unless just to chit chat. This falls into the man bites dog news interest level. Shocking, a 'fan' who doesn't like your call.

Don't worry, we haven't started implementing posting quotas.

Or limits.

(I'm waiting for someone to mention "wasting bandwidth" as if we're all dialing in on 300 baud modems using a Prodigy account.)

Speaking of idiot fans ...

Few years back, I am doing a junior high tournament game. Team in front is doing a high weave, the team behind comes out to force the issue. In the stands, a woman is screaming -- really screaming! -- "Three seconds! Three seconds!"

I'm underneath, and I have nobody in the key. Nobody on offense. Nobody on defense. The paint is literally empty. Devoid of human existence. A lonely patch of space. I am the nearest person to the paint. But she is going crazy.

A few minutes later, during a free throw, I'm standing next to the coach. Under my breath, I whisper to him, "What they hell is she yelling about, three seconds?" He laughs, covers his mouth, and says it is a mother of player who still hasn't figured out the difference between being in the key, and inside the three-point line.

"Well, can you try to get her to shut up?"

"I've been trying all f------- season!"

Last week, I was called at the last second to officiate a freshman boys game. Somehow, no officials ever got assigned and i got the call around 4:05 for the 4:00 game. :eek: Fortunately, I only live about 3 miles (5 km) away. So I change into my uniform except for my court shoes, and I get to the game site. I have to start the game solo, but my partner arrives partway through the first quarter.

The first half was a bit physical and chippy. I had an IF foul a push from behind on a breakaway layup. V coach was not thrilled, but the player made no attempt for the ball.

At the half, one of the V parents tries to confront me and accuses me of single-handedly screwing his team over. I did my best to turn, walk away, and ignore him.

What I really wanted to say was, "When your team isn't passing the ball the other team, it's missing nearly all of its shots. Yet, I'm somehow the reason you're losing by 30?"

Not the best game to end my season with, but at least I was able to help the assignor out in a bind.

That parent likely doesn't finish the game around here for even trying to confront an official.

If I'm the official he most certainly doesn't see the second half.

Same. I'd already be in a somewhat iffy mood after scrambling to cover the game and working by myself. I might actually break out my "I might be bad but I'm not 30 points worth of bad" line before having GM escort them away.