Basketball Referee

Basketball Referee

Rndballref

20 Years Experience

Chicago, IL

Male, 60

For twenty years I officiated high school, AAU and park district basketball games, retiring recently. For a few officiating is the focus of their occupation, while for most working as an umpire or basketball referee is an avocation. I started ref'ing to earn beer money during college, but it became a great way to stay connected to the best sports game in the universe. As a spinoff, I wrote a sports-thriller novel loosely based on my referee experiences titled, Advantage Disadvantage

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Last Answer on September 20, 2019

Best Rated

I heard that if you shoot the ball after a ref blows the whistle to call a foul or something, you can get a technical for shooting after the ref stops the play. Is that true?

Asked by emmers over 11 years ago

If the ref calls for the ball you should give it up. If you defy the ref it could be construed as disrespectful by a thin-skinned official. So yes, it could be called. BUT I never have made that call and I advise refs not to.

Sir I'm confused about what position should I play because I like playing as a Shooting Guard, I love to score, attack to the basket and spot up jumper but I'm Great in rebounding so my friend say I should just play as a Power Forward can i play both

Asked by Adam almost 12 years ago

It depends on 1) your current size and potential size and 2) your level of fundamental skills (dribbling, shot accuracy, speed, passing, basketball IQ, selflessness, and most importantly the needs of your team).

Explain the 3 second rule to me which by the way is never called .
When is the last time they called it in the college or pro level .

Do both feet have to leave the lane
And then it starts again when you come back into the land . how bout
In air

Asked by Paul m. over 10 years ago

The rulebook provisions of the 3 second rule is that a player cannot be in the lane for 3 seconds or more while his teamates have established team possession in their frontcourt.

If a player has either foot on the edge or line which defines yhe lane, he is in the lane. 

There is an interesting exception to a 3 count. A player can legally be in the lane for as much as 6 seconds as follows: he is in the lane for a count if 2 and receives the ball, the holds the ball for 2 counts and dribbles - he gets another 2 count. Then he must shoot .

But to your point, most experienced officials rarely call 3 seconds. You see newer referees at freshman games call it way too often. Most officials are taught that 3 seconds should only be called if and only if it results in an undue advantage. Thr principal is called Advantage Disadvantage. This means that when it is called it is ususlly a late call.. for example a player is camped out and normally when the shot goes up the 3 seconds restrictions are lifted, but if that player gets the rebound because he was there for more than 3 seconds the official should call it then.

A good preventative officiating move is for the official to shoo players out of the paint verbally to avoid having to call 3 secs too often.

But that's not basketball-why not have the two coaches arm wrestle-only the player holding the ball should be able to call a timeout-coaches should not be able to stand except during timeouts-tech foul otherwise- game is the players not coaches!

Asked by daveb over 12 years ago

I understand your point.  In nearly all sports, coaches make moves that help determine the outcome of games; time outs, call in plays etc.  I think the NFHS needs to decide if they want to completely eliminate the "everyone in the gym knows it is an intentional foul" being ignored or called as a common, or leave it unevenly called as it is.  In the past they have tried to issue guidelines, but the gray area for interpretation is a mile wide.  Don't know how much noise they hear about this issue, but NFHS has not settled on a good solution yet.

Thanks for last answer. The coach taught the boys that when dribble driving, swat a defender's reaching arms upward and away with the free arm to have a clear shot. I heard that violated nfhs 4-24-7 but I didn't see the latest text. True? Thanks.

Asked by rodkovel@juno.com over 12 years ago

In theory, swatting a defender's arms is a violation.  If a defender has the right to a space, swatting his arms is a foul.  But if the defender is handchecking (or forearm checking) an experienced ref would either call a foul on the defender, or not call anything. Instead he could warn both players to keep their arms off each other.  Unfortunately, often the offensive player gets caught swatting because the ref missed the initial armcheck.

True or false After technical foul free throws, the new trail official administers the throw-in.

Asked by Cornelius almost 12 years ago

I don't think there is a perscribed rotation as to which referee should put the ball in play. As a practice, after one of my partners called a technical foul I would have him be the official to put the ball in play, thereby putting him opposite of the table and benches.

I think your question is after a technical, is the throw in official the new trail?  And the answer is yes.  On any sideline throw in, the lead should come to the trail half of the court, making the throw in official the trail.

Opening tip. Our center tipped the ball along the midcourt line but no one touched it before it went out of bounds. Sure, ball to the other team now, but what about arrow? The ruling was the arrow for other side b/c our center "possessed" ball. Thx.

Asked by RodK over 12 years ago

Sounds like a bad call.  The center for Team A does not establish team possession by tipping the ball, but by knocking the ball out Team B gets the ball.  Because neither team had possession and B got the first ball the arrow is set for Team A's possession on the next one.