Let me guess, you're an umpire, just got back from umpiring social ball and you're upset?

too good for that!!! let me guess you play d grade social.

basketball is not a non-contact sport. its a

contact may be penalised

Can anyone explain why a fingertip on a guard at half court is a foul, but a hip & shoulder under the basket isn't?

It's frustrating when fouls on the dribble are not called ie a team is palying a trap and raping the crap out of your team but constant no calls, but then they'll call any contact under the basket... it really is a advantage to be able to physically chop and attack the dribbler/passer and get away with it, the problem is if your team doesn't play that way.

One ref at social is always tough, especially in the lower grades where the players simpy do not understand the rules or are ignorant. The amount of morons that abuse the refs at social it's little wonder they struggle to get them, it should be a 0 tolerance rule, no abuse, you can talk to the referee and ask for an explanation to improve communication between refs but abuse of any kind should be a tech.

I've questioned refs (after games) about the lack of fouls in specific areas of the game and one word keeps coming back to me: Interpretation.

Its how its interpreted, apparantly, that is more important than the actual foul itself. It seems the rules have become far more complicated than they should be. Why cant a foul be a foul.


A comment I've been hearing from refs lately is "I'm not bailing you out". This one really jacks me off as like most players, I don't want to be bailed out, I just want a foul that's there to be called, otherwise they're bailing the defender out. Doesn't make sense to me

My personal favourite is when the player with the ball gets pushed out of court illegally, and instead of calling one of two correct calls (a foul on the defense or out of court by the person with the ball) they say it is out off the defender. This is plain and simple bailing the defender out of a foul that depending on circumstances could have a big influence on a game.

Recent ABL umpire responses when questioned about calls:

Didn't you see that hit?
She didn't hit you "enough" to make you fall over.
No, only "enough" to put me out of court and turn the ball over.

After losing a rebound content:
What about that push?
She's bigger, she should be able to take it.

I'm all for letting the game flwo but a push is a push, a hit is a hit and when ur disadvantaged it has to be called a foul.

To anonymous, Can i guess that you are a player who never does wrong in your own eyes but gets fouled off each week.

Clubs have been notified about their attitudes towards referees, and that it was a major cause of the shortage of referees.

If the clubs were serious about maintaining quality basketball, the coaches, managers and commitee members would be and should be taking the players away from the court whether it is for part of the game, immediately after or for a week more.

The idea of this post is to make referees and players aware of the problems that exists and to deal with it to improve the game.

Please keep adding to this post to help improve the game.

I think much of this problem is not to do with the standard of referees, but the way they are being told to umpire.

These 'Interpretations' that I can't stand are frustrating the hell out of players and sometimes you can't help but get angry.

However, if you've got something to say I agree you should do so in an appropriate manner after the game.