"Don't point fingers"

[bballref3966]

I follow a very well-respected official from Georgia on Twitter whose username is @RayTheRef. Today, he tweeted three tweets which caught my attention...

"What's up with the officials using the one-finger pointing? Why "buy into" this instead of using the Approved, Proper & Professional Signal?"

"One finger for Direction, One Finger for Counting, One Finger for Starting The Clock, One Finger for last minute, etc. No dignity. No pride."

"Weren't you taught as a child not to point? Some officials have gone for 4 fingers to 2 & now 1. I'm worried as to which one finger is next."


This is something that, for me, I've never really thought about, probably because my assigner really couldn't care less if I signal direction with one, two, or four fingers. I know that in high school the chart says to use four fingers, and I try to get in the habit of it. I also chop and count with a full hand.

My question is: is this something that your assigner(s) are strict about, is this something you think is a big deal?