How do you become a ref?

To qualify, you have to be blind.

 

Nice to see you setting the bar high.

 

if you're a female, you don't qualify to be a ref.

 

uh, dem refs make a sh!tload of money.

 

You start at the bottom--i.e. middle school level or community league. Especially if you don't know people in the industry. You move up slowly. Give it about 20 years moving up through the ranks and you might be in Div 1 NCAA if you're good. That's the *usual* progression based on people I've talked to in the industry

 

oh yeah, and they don't make much. They usually have 2nd jobs throughout their career

 

NBA refs? dont they avg 6 figures a year?

 

Those who can do -- those who can't teach -- those who can't do either ref.

 

I think the veteran officials do, like Steve Javie and Dick Bavetta, and then there's also the playoff bonus money they are in alot also. The NBA rookie refs I've heard start around 60,000 but that was maybe in late 90's that I heard that.

 

1983 - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E0DD1539F933A25752C1A965948260

2005 - http://www.geierfinancial.com/cgi-bin/Portals/0/BloombergJan2005NBATickets.pdf

Referees' Tickets
Free tickets make up a bigger percentage of a referee's compensation. Officials who work about 82
games a season would get $25,080.52 in free tickets if they accept all that are available to them.
That compares with a $300,000-a-year salary for 20-year veterans, and $100,000 a year for rookies.

and a great pic of Barry...

http://www.nba.com/news/rtp_officials_030924.html

 

I've been a ref for high school kids. There is a certification, and the test is much harder than you think it is. I've played and watched a lot of basketball in my day, but none of that prepared me for how difficult the rules really can be or how difficult it really is to ref in real time.

Good luck! It's a whole different skill set.

For me, it was too stressful and ate up too much extra time.

But it can be very enjoyable if you realize it's nothing like playing. But be prepared to feel very very stupid for a while until you get the hang of things.

 

i been a ref for 2 years now. nothing can prepare you for reffing. when you watch basketball you watch where the ball is. the hardest part is watching off ball action when you are a ref because naturally you want to look where the action is.

high school refs make 40-60 bucks per game..which is not bad at all for an hour of work.

and it's not an easy job. it's VERY easy to critique someone else but when you are out there watching the action and people are expecting you to make the call, it gets harder.

i just dont like nba refs because of the treatment they give some players. like dwade gets touch fouls while you can kill yao and it's ok.

 

am i missing something? that looks like kidd

 

if you're a ref, you get free first class tickets.

what you do is sell the tickets, and buy coach, and keep the rest, but do not report it on your income tax.

 

Officials... If you are good.. are very well compensated. Some of the mid-major college officials at the D-1 level can make as much as 750- 1000 a game.. because they get a percentage of the gate.

Some of these refs officiate over 100 games a season, because theyll pick up a lot of non-confrence games and smaller confrence games so they make a very good living.

NBA officials even better... Good luck.. I used to officiate high school games when I was in college. It is a great way to make extra cash especially getting called to do tournaments for freshmen and JV because you can bang out 3 or 4 games in about 5 hours and make a nice chunk of change.

If you live in Texas call your local TASO chapter and ask how you can get involved. They are ALWAYS looking for officials..

 

Anyone remember an old SNL sketch w/ John Goodman? He was a referee doing a post-game press conference or something. And then people in the media would ask him questions like "Are you legally blind? Were you watching another game, like on a small TV or something during the game? It seemed like you were calling a totally different game.

Just did some searching, here's the script for it. Kind of long so I used spoilers.

Spoiler

 

somebody put daisy stems on my roses

 

If no one turned up to your 18th birthday party, you qualify to be a ref.

 

Most kids have hoop dreams, but you sir have ref dreams.

I wouldn't want to be a ref, because it seems as everybody hates the ref no matter what they do.