Winning: the ultimate distraction

24 May Winning: the ultimate distraction

I was reffing basketball again this morning and I had a game where a player placed another in a headlock and took him to the floor as hard as he could. So I promptly gave him a disqualifying foul and he was removed from the game.

The disqualifying foul was a no brainer – the player obviously had to leave the game, but the coach was upset that I didn’t give a foul to the player who came in to defend the player who was taken down.

In hindsight, I can admit that I should have given the retaliating player a foul (but not kicked him from the game). What bothers me greatly is that the coach was more concerned with my referring and lack of calling a foul on the other team than working with his player who had committed such a violent foul. Instead, the disqualified player sat on the bleachers, trash talking in front of the fans for the remainder of the game.

It bothers me that an adult who is suppose to be a coach to his kids was so distracted by the prospect of winning the game – or by the prospect of punishing the other team – that he fails to properly guide his players towards playing the game the right way.

Who won the game?

Who cares.

The memory of who won infinitely pales in comparison to the lessons learned by players when they have a coach who resists the temptation of becoming distracted by things like winning.