(Reprise article)

That’s too bad because a great one passed away this week, National Basketball Association former referee and supervisor of league officials Darell Garretson died in his home at age 76. The league’s website NBA.com did not mention it.

The feed was picked up from ESPN.com. The NBA did issue a press release. Larry Brown leaving yet another team got more notice than Darell.  

The 62 mostly anonymous men and women who are the eyes and ears of the game, one of whom is his son Ronnie, deserve better. Aside from a “shame on you” to Commissioner David Stern, when a man gives 31-years of his life living in airplanes and running the hardwood floors of NBA arenas and then becomes the unflappable Supervisor of Officials, it seems a bit undignified. Darell was instrumental in the three referee system now common. He was prescient enough to see it as a mentoiring tool for new young referees ensuring the new member of the team was always teamed with two senior officials to improve the quality of the game.

Admittedly, your game has had difficulties in this area. Yet if you compare the NBA to other sports, especially European football (soccer), the level of respect, discipline and control wielded by that team of three each evening, coupled with the league’s tough “no exceptions” level of punishment for unsportsmanlike behaviour, makes your game’s conduct something everyone can learn from.

In 1988-90 when the Miami Heat first entered the league, I had the incredible privilege of watching the leadership torch pass from Earl Strom to Darell Garretson while sitting in the best seat in the house. I was part of the original scoring/stats team in the old Miami Arena.

Every night, three anonymous men and women showed up 90-minutes before the game and headed quietly to a tiny dressing room protected by two of Miami’s finest. It was commendable that the league did not want either team to know who they were in advance, so my job was to walk down the hall, gently rap on the door and check their names for the official scorebook.

There usually followed 2-minutes or so of conversation in which one could get the full measure of the men (they all were men in 1988) in grey. They all blow calls and there is not a one of us who gets it right 100% of the time in our work either. Aside from being the best at their craft, you were always blessed Mr. Commissioner with men of great personality, passion and a deep love of the game.

In the jungle, zebras are feasted upon by the wild cats. As the arbiters of conduct between the lines referees are heaped with abuse from players, coaches, fans and everyone else. What is it that draws someone to a place where 20,000+ people, boo, swear and throw object when a whistle is blown?

Here in the UK, the English FA is in crisis because referees are leaving football and refusing to work games because of the abuse from players and parents. Referees have been the target of postgame brawls and beating by players and fans. As a basketball official for an 18-years and under league here, I swallow my whistle too many times where a technical fouls should be assessed for one reason, there would be no one left to play the game if all infractions were called.

That does not happen in the NBA, NCAA or local high schools, the ref’s word is law and there are severe consequences if that law is broken. I credit men and women like Darell who sportwriters called “dull” for bringing a quiet dignity to the role and discouraging official showmanship.

“A good referee is invisible,” he once said to me. Well Darell, you never were to this fan. I know that you, Earl and Mendy are now whistling Wilt for elbows and Pistol Pete for travelling and calling T’s on Coach Auerbach. God bless.