I know it’s still football season but can we talk about basketball for just a hot minute? I’ve thought about being a referee a lot lately. Not that I actually want to be a referee but just about the job in general. What must it be like to have a job where people literally stand up and scream out their opinions on your job performance at you in real time. I mean, I don’t know, I might be a better housekeeper if people were yelling ‘You call that folding clothes?! You’re blind, woman!’ as I wandered around the house. Probably not though. I’ve blogged about it before.
Last year I decided to go to the source and interview an actual referee. And this is where this post goes a bit off the rails. Have you ever had an idea in the middle of the night and you get so excited that you actually scribble it down but then when you wake up in the morning you’ve written something like ‘lime monkey mountain’ and realize you have zero clue what your actual idea was much less what limes, monkeys, or a mountain have to do with it?
Well, that’s kinda what happened with my interview. See, I interviewed the referee last year but like the unpaid unprofessional I am I didn’t actually WRITE MY QUESTIONS down so now I just have a bunch of answers – that make zero since. Terry Gross couldn’t make sense of this interview.
Bless my heart. Y’all, I’m just the worst. I mean, the guy is nice enough to sit down with me after the game and I can’t even recall what all the questions were! This is why people make fun of bloggers.
The good news is the referee was incredibly charismatic and charming so I actually remember quite a bit about what he said. Craig Knight, referee by night, and college professor with his phd by day, was the interviewee. Wonder if he tells his student’s he referees as a side hustle?
Here are the questions and answers I can remember from these copious notes I took:
- Do you feel like people yell at the refs more or less than they did when you were playing? About the same. Most teams have that one person in the crowd that’s loud and it’s just comes with the territory.
- What’s your least favorite call to make? The block/charge call. It’s the most misunderstood call and the one people get the most upset about.
- What would you change about high school basketball? That’s an easy question. I would move the three point line back. It’s destroying the quality of the inside the paint play. Teams rely on it too much. We need to restore balance back to the game.
- What’s your favorite gym to referee in? Wallace State. The stakes are higher when the kids play there and it’s a nice facility.
- Why do people feel so free to criticize refs? Because they think they know the rules as well as we do.
- What makes a good referee? Someone who is approachable, who makes the right call, and someone who is under control at all times.
I went back to question three because that one absolutely floored me. I’m constantly criticizing high school teams that shoot so many threes because I consider them to be low percentage shots but apparently they aren’t as low percentage as I thought! And when I say ‘constantly criticizing’ I mean ‘complaining to Billy about it’ because I would never actually criticize a coach or a player.
His answer about staying in control was funny solely because it made me think about Forget Paris which is one of my very favorite movies. Billy Crystal, playing an NBA ref, has an epic meltdown during a game. It’s pretty great scene.
Ya know, parenting is a bit like refereeing. I mean, my teenagers certainly feel free to criticize me occasionally. Heck, even the ten year old said ‘you don’t really like to use your blinker, do you’ on the way to school this morning.
Alright sassy pants, pretty sure I don’t need your opinion on my blinker usage. That’s okay. I still love you.
Everyone has an opinion. Even monkey’s that live on lime mountains.