The last couple of months, I have been playing on a basketball team, mostly comprised of ex-pats. The teams we compete against are almost entirely Japanese. And naturally, the referees are Japanese as well. This has led to some rather interesting officiating.
So, in a game last month, one of our players took exception to the fouls that were not being called, and laid into one of their guys with an extremely hard foul. As the situation escalated, he pulled a page out of the Sprewell archives, and began choking an official. I will say that it was not life-threatening, but choking, nonetheless. At this point, our team intervened, and eventually, managed to cool his temper.
Now, what transpired next, is what I find almost unbelievable. In the next game, our team needed to help officiate. Well, so guess who found himself wearing a referee’s uniform!