A reader felt strongly enough about officiating standards to write to me about the recent controversial win by Woodlands Ring Secondary over Hwa Chong Institution in the National C Division Boys Basketball Championship. For those who are new to this story, timekeeping irregularities and umpiring decisions saw Woodlands Ring win the game with a last second 3-pointer that was released after the buzzer went off (see video below). HCI filed an appeal but lost. Woodlands Ring went on into the next round but were knocked at the quarter-final stage and did not make the semi-finals.
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Email by reader who watched the game in its entirety:
A very successful Olympic Games have just completed in Beijing and I'd like to wish my hearty congratulations to the Singapore Women's Table Tennis team and to all of the athletes who represented Singapore so admirably. Certainly we all wish to imbue our youth with the Olympic ideals of sportsmanship and fair play in the hopes and belief that those ideals will serve to make them better citizens. Although we live in an imperfect world, these Olympic Games and the athletes who represented their home nations for the most part lived up to those ideals in fine fashion. Many fine role models were established.
And now we turn our thoughts back to the work-a-day world. But before we set aside those Olympic ideals for another four years, may I ask you to hold those thoughts of sportsmanship and fair play just a bit longer.
On Friday, August 1st 2008, a C Division playoff basketball game was played between Hwa Chong Institute and Woodlands Ring Secondary at the Singapore Basketball Centre. As it transpired, a controversy enveloped the last four seconds of that game. Many would ask, "Why would you want to bring that up again now?" Some would say, "Let it go", "Move on", and, unkindest of all, "Stop being such a poor sport!" To understand the answer to those questions, you first need to understand the events that transpired in the last four seconds of that game.
With 2.0 seconds showing on the game clock, officials used their discretion to add an additional 2 seconds back to the clock. Problem is, they didn't reset the game clock to show the additional time. Play recommenced with the game clock still showing 2.0 seconds. Further, the game clock did not restart with action on the court. (WRS bounced a shot off the rim with the clock still showing 2.0 seconds.) But the game clock did expire on the play.
Officials then used their discretion to add another second back to the game, but again did not use the game clock, using this time the shot clock to time the final one second of the game. With the game clock showing 2.0 seconds, the officials in their discretion with two separate pronouncements added a total of 3 seconds back to the game without ever resetting the game clock. The referee then judged ‘good' a 3-point shot executed after the final buzzer.
You wonder why there was a controversy? The controversy was not merely about the contentious final call - it was also about the mismanagement of the clock and time leading up to the final call.
Why does this matter?
It matters because we try to teach our children to play by the rules. The best way to teach that is for the adults to set the right example. But it is difficult to explain this to our kids when they see the adults playing loose with the rules. The officials are meant to be there to enforce the rules and that includes managing the clock.
Hwa Chong did the correct thing and filed an appeal through the proper appeals process. A video was submitted in support of the appeal. The video showed the game and shot clocks several times in the last 4 seconds as well as the action on the court. In the event, the appeal was rejected and the video was not allowed in evidence because there was not agreement prior to the game to use video or photo in case of appeal. Just following the rules, you might say. OK, we accept that decision. Still I worry about the message that may have been sent – that a technicality is more important than the truth.
Again, why does this matter?
It matters because in 2010, Singapore will be hosting the Youth Olympics. I wonder if the last four seconds of this basketball game is the image that Singapore wants to be broadcasting to the world? Play by the rules. We demand it of our children and our athletes. Should we demand any less of the adults and the officials who enforce the rules?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmqdjXHNItM
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=815DQOZIkFA
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Controversy erupts as as Woodlands Ring edge out Hwa Chong in C Division thriller
About that 3-point shot…
C02 Says:
September 6th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I don’t think there’s anything to do with the camera…. Anyway it’s not only in basketball that has such happenings. Sometimes other sports like softball, soccer etc have got very unprofessional refrees or umpires. In softball umpires are usually national players, ex-national players and so on and they are usually not well trained. They give reasons like “i want to see how good the player is" when they make a controversial call. I feel that umpires should be trained professionally as in softball most of them are voluntary.
To correct your sentence, i am currently in Softball and the umpires are nt necessarily national or ex-national. There may be a conflict of interest there too. Also, during my Nationals, the majority of the umpires were actually quite good, but do need to brush up on their rules a bit, and there was only 1 bad umpire, really.
from my experience and from what i see.singapore referees are…extremely inexperience,lacking the knowledge of the game,doesnt take the job passionately just think that it is just something that u can scrape through,some even have limited english vocabularies so they use hokkien vulgarities.man u guys gotta study english man.some look as if they are some gangsters,come on u guys are referees,not some street hooligans.pls the whole world is gonna come down on 2010.if you carry this standard throughout the tournament.lets forget about our young ballers goin far,cos the older referees arent giving other countries a good impression.1 word to describe singapore ref-SUCKS
reting as ref-1 over 10
I don’t think there’s anything to do with the camera…. Anyway it’s not only in basketball that has such happenings. Sometimes other sports like softball, soccer etc have got very unprofessional refrees or umpires. In softball umpires are usually national players, ex-national players and so on and they are usually not well trained. They give reasons like “i want to see how good the player is” when they make a controversial call. I feel that umpires should be trained professionally as in softball most of them are voluntary.
alittle thing to take note is a basketball game if the player is had the ball and had jump juz right on the 01 sec -00 sec the ball will be in , as for the above video the cam was a little lag which maybe 1 of the factor which was rejected in the above situation a referee has the right to choose either in or not so… if hci want to video things again pls use a better so tat it can be use
i like this email.
Wake ask yourself the question you had asked me…. Singapore referee have quantity but no quality… Well if you do not know the rules well then you can keep quiet
Just replace the head of ref.
basketball,
Who are you?
How much do you know about singapore referee? How much do you know how they work?
How much basketball rules do you know? The common ones?
I mean I don’t know the rules well and how they work but your comment is seriously unconstructable. utterly lousy.
No need to worry too much. Just let the Singapore referee flop as they will never ever accept any criticism or admit any mistake. In YOG most of the officials will not be from Singapore.