City League Basketball

Just got home from one of my city league basketball games and need to vent a little...

The team we played had a few decent shooters and they hit several 3's early on and went up by 15 points. We switched to man to man and started moving the ball better and made a nice come back capped off by one of our guys hitting a half court shot at the buzzer before half time to bring us within 6 points.

I'm not one to complain too much about officiating but these guys were straight up horrible. Just a couple examples. I drive the lane on a fast break and get fouled by 2 guys pretty hard. One of those guys grabs the ball and chucks it at me -- I assume out of frustration since this would have been the third consecutive play I scored on him. One of my teammates points this out to the ref and he gives him (my teammate -- not the guy who threw the ball) a Technical! Unbelievable!

There were several other horrible missed calls and calls that should not have been made. But, the worst --- absolute worst ref mistake I think I have ever witnessed in a game came right at the end. We had come back and actually taken the lead with a few minutes left to play. We're up by 2 points with about 10 seconds or so and the other team hits a 3 pointer and goes up by 1. There is now around 5 seconds left in the game and the ball is thrown in quickly to me. I had been pretty hot throughout the game and so 2 guys come at me at half court where I split and go right by them. Just as I do this, a ref blows the whistle. I'm baffled as I wasn't fouled or anything and there was nothing to call. He comes over and I ask, "what is the call?" He says it was an inadvertent whistle!!!! An inadvertent whistle on the last play of the game after I have split 2 defenders and now have a 5 on 3 fast break situation where I'm likely to score, get fouled, or set-up a teammate to score??? Are you kidding me?

This ref then wants us to bring the ball in at half-court and now there is just 3 seconds left in the game. We of course are protesting. The refs talk it over and decide we can take the ball out again under the other team's basket with the original 5 seconds left. But, now they have a chance to set-up their defense and it is a completely different situation.

Well...of course I'm ranting because we ended up losing the game. But, in all the years I've played and watched basketball, I can't think of another time when a ref's mistake has impacted the outcome of a game so dramatically. Maybe we wouldn't have scored on that final play but drives me nuts to not had the chance!

But...you know what...I still love this game!

BTW, just because nearly every NBA basketball player has tons of tattoos doesn't mean getting them will make you a player. Tons of these guys were all tatted out and they had no game. Sad and funny.

On a positive note, one of the guys on my team who I played with for the first time last week, asked me tonight how old I was. When I told him I was 40, he said, "I don't believe you!" That made me feel good. But, I would have felt better if we had won. I hate losing.

Okay...time for bed. I got jump training to do tomorrow!