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

When you dribble and the defender goes for the steal, are you allowed to use the non dribbling hand to block or even swap/push his hand away

Asked by Tamudawson over 10 years ago

You are entitled to your vertical space. If you use your forearm out of your vertical space to seperate the defender it is an offensive player control foul.On the other hand, if your forearm is within your vertical space and the defender pushes your arm away to get closer to you it is a common foul on the defender.

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 11 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.

A dribbling player loose control of the ball and hits the referee. He catches the ball with two hands and continues to dribble. Is this a traveling violation?

Asked by Max over 11 years ago

The referee is considered part of the floor, so if the player catches the ball with 2 hands after dribbling and bouncing off a referee, it is double dribble.  

If this was not the rule then the following could happen:

if a player was trapped with an official nearby, he could bounce the ball off the official and get a new dribble. This is not the intention, so the referee is part of the floor, and a player DOES NOT get a new dribble after bouncing off the ref.

Ball inbounded under offensive basket - thrown towards the backcourt where an offensive player touches (doesnt control) before going over half court line - is this backcourt violation?

Asked by webstone over 11 years ago

You need to establish front court possession before you can have a back court violation. Answer is no.

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 about 11 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).

What's the call when a shot is taken, hits the rim, bounces into or lands in the back court and is first touched by someone from the team that made the shot? Free ball or violation?

Asked by lrwindy over 11 years ago

Team control ends when the ball is in flight on a try or tap for a goal. Since there is no team control, there is no backcourt violation. Play on...

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 10 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.