I usually do a fist bump just before we sprint to our positions from the table just before tip off. I think it shows a little bit of crew unity at least among the crew (if you don't work together often) if not the coaches, players and fans.

I do not fist bump during the game. I will however give a "Good call" to a partner if it really is a good call and the players and/or coaches don't like it. I think this gives credibility to the call and the partner, and hopefully deescalates the angry coach or whatever.

This can be dangerous, too. One call, you say good call when the coach is chirping. The next you don't cuz you think he kicked it . . . and the perceptive coach comes out with "Even your partner knows you blew it" because you've tipped him off by how you responded to the prior call. YMMV.

That assumes I would care in the first place what a coach hears or does not hear.

I think people worry too much about what observers (meaning coaches and fans) think about things we do. Coaches perceive all kinds of silly things that are absurd. So if I tell a partner "good call" I really do not care what they think if I say nothing. Coaches perceive we do not like them based off of some silly situation we were involved with them and it is simply not true. Coaches have to do better than that if they wish many of us to change something.

Peace

No smiles? I'll really miss Hochuli.

I didn't assume anything about you. The post to which I was responding said he did it because it added credibility to the call and de-escates with the coach. My point is that bolstering some calls is inherently not bolstering others. Which is soemthing to be careful about. (Saying it just for your partner's benefit is a different issue.)

Definitely no fist bumping or anything like that during the game. I'll give a fist bump to my partner(s) right before we take our positions for the opening tip (sometimes, depends on the partner), and after the game, usually a handshake (again, depending on the partner). During the game, especially if it's a newer official, and I have a look on one of his calls and I feel he nailed it, I'll tell him "good call". I usually don't do that too often though, usually save that kind of stuff for the postgame.

Huh?

I was not responding to you as if you were talking directly to me. I was stating that many of us, including me do not give a d.a.m.n. about what coaches even think of them. I have been doing this too long to worry about those things anymore. I know off the bat there are going to be coaches that love me and coaches that hate my guts. And often times that is going to be for things I have no control over at the time. Like where I live, who I work for, what conferences I have worked, where they saw me previously and maybe they loss when I was on the game.

So if I were to tell my partner "Good call" the last thing I would be thinking about is how the coach feels about that statement in the context of that call and other calls. And if you are concerned that some calls are bolstered and others are not, well you know what I would say to a coach. "Coach I did not see the play clearly in question. When my partner gets around to you, ask him what he saw. We are all not looking at the same stuff all the time." And walk away from them. My experience has told me to not care about these things, because it will be a waste of your time with irrational thinking coaches.

Peace

*sigh* Lighten up, dude, you missed the point I was making entirely because it isn't what you do. (Which is what my last sentence of my second post said: doing it for your partner is different from doing it for the benefit of coaches.) My response was to Sharpshoornes, who obviously does care about what the coaches thought of his partner's call as he was saying "good call" because he wanted the coaches to be influenced by what he was saying:

If you're not doing it for that reason, then nothing I said is relevant to you. My only was that doing something for the purpose of showing coaches you agree with your partner risks throwing them under the bus when you don't do it.

Not professional at all. With every game on TV, there is no place for this because it can be perceived in so many ways. I believe it was innocent but they should know better performing on national TV every week.

I have to lighten up? You acted like I you were responding to me.

OK, I see what kind you are. ;)

Peace

When I tell my partner "good call", my tone and timing most definitely gives the coach no doubt who the real target of the comment is. The perceptive coach won't venture into that convo afterwards.

Exactly!!!

Peace