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

If a player dribbles Andre picks it up with 2 hands and the other player touches the ball( not knocking it out of the others poccession) then can the player with the ball with 2 hands dribble again?

Asked by Chantoan almost 10 years ago

No, an offensive player cannot regain the ability to dribble until another player touches the ball WHILE the original player no longer possesses the ball. So if A1 has continuous possession during the time that B1 touches the ball, A1 cannot dribble for the second time. A more likely call is if B1 touches the ball and pushes it in an opposite direction than A1 is holding it, it should be called a held ball (and go to the possession arrow).

Is there a point where yelling ball, ball, ball becomes unsportsmanlike conduct or some other foul? For instance they seem to be yelling it as loud as they possibly can.

Asked by Grahmm over 10 years ago

There is no specific provision in the rule book as to how loud players are allowed to be. It is a judgement call. If I thought it was excessive I would stop the game, warn the coach and warn the players and then start issuing technical fouls. Unfortunately, this behavior might intimidate young players, but at the high school level it probably will not work very well.

How much time a person need to go from a beginner level in basketball to the NCAA D-1 or NCAA D-2?
Specifically if this is a man who's 1.9 meters tall, weights 76 kilograms, but at the start isn't an athlete whatsoever.

Asked by Serge over 9 years ago

It is impossible to say or even generalize/ For example the University of Illinois, a D1 Big Ten school had scholarship player Nnanna Egwu who was born in Nigeria and didn't play basketball until 8th grade. He was considered a "project" when he was offers a scholarship. He had a good, not stellar collage career and he is trying to play pro ball but has of yet not hooked on with a team in the NBA. By the way, in college Nnanna played at 6 foot 9. The problem with being 6'2" and 165 lbs is not many schools will take on a "project" who hasn't played much ball. A lot depends on how much time a player has to develop and where the development takes place. Seems to me that most well recruited middle schoolers or even high schoolers play for very competitive AAU teams. If you want to be the best, you have to compete with the best.

Followup "intentional foul". Why not declare any non-shooting foul in the last 2 mins of a game a "intentional foul"? But I'd keep both the shots and ball; if just the ball, the fouling team gets the chance to get the ball back on the inbounds.

Asked by daveb about 11 years ago

That's a good idea too.  But playing devil's advocate, many coaches like the strategy of being able to slow the game down when you're losing by a few points by putting the other team at the line and stopping the clock.  Late fouling in a tight game shifts the game to a chess match (and free throw pressure cooker) and I believe many coaches like having the ability to get back in a game.  This wouldn't be such an issue if we had a shot clock for the entire game.

If an offensive player jumps sideways for a layup or shot and the defensive player jumps to defend him and makes contact in the air, who's foul is it?

Asked by Billy over 9 years ago

If neither player is entitled to the air space where they collide, it should be treated as incidental contact, regardless of the severity of the impact.

An offensive player is next to basket knees bent ready to jump. Defensive player has his arms and hands over guy/girl with ball. offensive player jumps and pushes ball through defenders arms with his hands and arms. who is or if the foul on?

Asked by dahszil over 9 years ago

Foul is on defensive player. Principle of vertical space.

Can a team "Stack 4 players together" during a throw in without letting the defense get a legal guarding position during a throw in? What's the call if the defense tries to get in between the offensive players?

Asked by K.C. almost 9 years ago

You can stack perpendicular to the throw in boundary line, but if the defense wants to step into a parallel stack room must be made.