I Love Basketball!!!

[Just Curious]

Inspired by another age wishing thread...
I can't jump.... Sooooo I took up refereeing... I have officiated for 18 years now... Or is it 28??? Oh well it seems like only yesterday since I threw up the last jump ball... Or was it the first jump ball...
In the early days, some of the games would really upset me... I'd come home wondering if I was really that bad... Should I have made that one call different...
Now life is great!!! And so is my calling... With failing eyesight and a big hearing loss... I call whatever I see... I think I see... I thought that I saw... I think that I might see... And no one ever complains anymore... Or is it that I just don't hear what they are yelling...
One call that I made this past season had everyone on their feet cheering..... Waving the arms... It was almost deafening in that gym... It is so nice to go home after calling a great game...
There was this one fellow that said one of my calls sucked... But with the onset of Ahlzheimers, I forgot about what he said two minutes later...
Life is great at 56.... At least I think that it is... Or that it was...

 

[CUZ]

Wow! Ref'ing basketball games has got to be one of the more thankless jobs. There's 10 people out there all trying to get away with as much as possible and only 2 or 3 people trying to police them. And then everyone in the gym has a different viewpoint on what is a foul and what isn't, what is palming and what isn't, what is a walk and what isn't and of course exactly how long 3 seconds lasts.

A friend who had ref'ed but quit so he could watch his daughter play had the best lines I've heard. If we were at home he'd say to the ref "we're home so we want all the calls" and if we were away he'd say to the ref "we're on the road so you've got to help us out with some calls". Of course the refs would always smile at him and the rest of us would get a chuckle.

Anyway, I don't know whether to congratulate you on your failing eyesight, hearing loss or Alzheimers, but whatever works for you congrats.

Keep up the good work 'cause they can't play the game without you.

Cuz

 

[cattleluvr18]

dude, just be glad that you can, or atleast attempt, to run up and down the courts. i know many people who cant do that and there only in their 40's. im sure after ref'ing all those years you've got it down by now. and so what if they dont like your call anyway. its not like you can take it back. trust me, you'll know if they dont like your call...you will hear it. no matter how deaf. just dont let the dumb crowd make you work up a sweat. there just dumb people who are goin to die someday anyway so dont let it bother you. and when you make a call like that good one, it just makes it all worth something.