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

a player dribbles the ball, before going out of bound he releases (untouch) the ball, and get out of bound. After he gets back in court from out of bound, can he pick up the ball and continue the dribble?

Asked by Antuxity almost 10 years ago

It is a violation for a player to leave the floor for an unauthorized reason. The ball is dead when the player goes out of bounds and is awarded to the opposite team.

A player commits 5th foul. Ref confirms with official. Replacement player enters game. 4 mins. later, the player who fouled out re-enters the game. The official scorer now says he only has 4 fouls. Wasn't the player ineligible to return?

Asked by Brooks about 9 years ago

The table official's book is the final word unless the referee has certain, personal knowledge. So assuming the official has not kept track of how many fouls a player has, if the scorer discovers a counting error of a player;s foul, he should conference with the referee (head of the game officials), explain what happened, and if a player really had 4 fouls it should be explained to both coaches and the player should be allowed to reenter the game.

What does the score have to be when an official sees that the losing team has no chance of winning and just ends the game?

Asked by Solomon Green over 10 years ago

There is no provision in the NFHS rulebook for calling a game because of a lopsided score. The only reason I would call a game early is if continuing the game presented a safety issue to the players, fans or officials.

A1 is shooting the front end of a 1 and. B.1 enters the lane before the release. Before the shot goes in the basket, A4 enters the lane from behind the 3 point line. The free throw is made. Does this constitute a simultaneous lane violation

Asked by Rob over 10 years ago

If there are two violations by players in lane spaces the 2nd is ignored.

If the 2nd violation is from beyond the arc both are penalized and you go to the possession arrow.

For NFHS, the new rule for the end of a free throw includes the ball striking the backboard. Can free throw shooters now bank the ball directly back to themselves?

Asked by Dunkster over 9 years ago

I believe that although the free throw ends when the ball hits the backboard, it is still a violation if the free thrower fails to hit the ring.

Our AAU league posted a notice on its site that starting in spring, players need gov't issued photo ID. But it did not say how the rule was to be enforced or when or by whom ID's would be examined. Do you have any more on that? Thanks.

Asked by rodk over 10 years ago

I do not have any special knowledge of AAU league or tournament rules. I do know that age verification is a perpetual problem in traveling basketball.

can an official Basketball match start with 1 referee on the court?

Asked by Samer Taha about 10 years ago

While it is not ideal, a game can begin with 1 referee. It seems that it happens occasionally at the lower levels but rarely at the Varsity level because if the Varsity crew is short a ref, they will invite a ref from the pre-lim (usually sophomore) game to stay and work the game with them.

When I have had to ref myself, I find that play under the basket gets rough because the players know that you can only follow the ball. You also miss a lot of line calls.