Calling the 3 Second Rule in Basketball

Last year I Refereed 6 games in the Arizona Nike High School Basketball Tournament of Champions.

Lots of fun & some outstanding basketball play by the kids and one dad that cracked me up......

All thru the 1st half of a game this fellow kept counting- "one, Two, THree, FOUr, FIVE!!". Getting louder at each number count. That would be followed by him yelling, "Call the 3 Seconds, Ref!!"

Image by K. M. Klemencic via Flickr.com

During a Time Out I was standing near the fellow and took the risk of asking him what "3 Seconds Call" he was hollering about.

"You don't even know the 3 Seconds Rule!" He stated quite animatedly.

So I asked him to explain what he was so upset about.

"You're letting them stand in the key for 5 & 6 seconds. They're not allowed to do that!" Was the reply.

I asked, "What do you mean by 'Them'?"

"The other team!!" He bellowed.

"Sir, to me they are BOTH the 'other team'. Which 'other team' do you mean?"

"The ones in blue!"

I looked at the court and said, "You mean the Blue team at THIS end of the court?"

"Yes, are you blind AND stupid!? You don't even know what 3 Seconds is!!"

By now several other spectators in the immediate area were listing closely.

My reply was simple. "Sir, the team in Blue is on Defense at this end of the court. The "3 Seconds Rule" only applies to the team on Offense. The Blue Team can stand in the key as long as they want with no penalty."

"You're really an idiot, Ref!" He hollered.

The surrounding fans burst out laughing at this, which he interpreted as being the fans agreeing I was an idiot, not realizing they were laughing at him.

I could see the futility of continuing the discussion with him, blew my whistle and waved for the teams to come back on the floor to continue the game.

Now, I will readily admit us Ref's sometimes make mistakes, but if you're gonna yell at a Ref about a RULE, make sure you know the rule first!!

By contrast, we had a rebounding play in another game while I was near the coach on the sidelines. It appeared from where we were standing, BEHIND the play, that an opposing player might have gone "Over the Back" of his player. He turned to me and asked, :"Where's the Over the Back call?" I looked at him and said, "From where we are looking from you & I just don't know for sure. maybe it was, maybe it wasn't and sometime we just plain miss a call. But I'm not gonna call something unless I'm confident I'm making the right call."

He started chuckling and said, "I can accept that answer!" And that was the last I heard from him the rest of the game.

Refereeing is great fun!