Referee at regional showcase takes laziness to new level, calls games from midcourt folding chair
When a teenage basketball prospect (or his parents, for that matter) signs up for a major regional recruiting showcase, they expect to see college assistant coaches in attendance, some experienced coaches and other top recruits on the other side of the court.
What they don't expect to see is a referee sitting in a folding chair at halfcourt, calling their game without moving.
Incredibly, that's precisely what happened during the afternoon session of the recent ScoutsFocus Elite Showcase in Greensboro, N.C., where one referee decided she had had enough running up and down the court for one day.
Never mind the fact that the players at the event were running at least as much as she was, and much faster, too. Or that the players she was officiating were paying for the privilege of playing at the event, while she was getting paid. Evidently neither of those factors was enough motivation to keep this referee on her feet.
According to the list of referees for the event, the midcourt sitter was a woman named Nicole Henry. While it's likely that Henry was working the event predominantly as a way to earn some extra weekend cash, that hardly justifies her decision to quite literally sit down on the job.
Yes, it's always possible that there was some kind of health reason why Henry had to sit down. Yet, if there was one, she didn't clear it with anyone else at the event, and it must have come on incredibly suddenly, because she officiated all of her games during the morning session while standing up. The organizer of the evident also said he was confident that she wasn't sick because the coordinator of the referees for the event didn't disclose any issues about any of his officials working the showcase.
In fact, Henry even called approximately the first five minutes of her final two games from her feet before retreating back to the chair. In neither case did she grab her calf or her side, which would have been indicative of a cramp. Rather, it just seemed like she didn't want to run anymore.
Now, according to a ScoutsFocus source, it's unlikely that Henry will have her weekend freelance income much longer. When Greensboro-based referee coordinator Greg Williams was asked how he would handle a referee who tried to officiate a game from midcourt in a folding chair, his response was appropriately succinct:
"I'd fire him."
That's a harsh sentence, though its hard to find fault with it given just how lackadaisical Henry approached a job for which she was being compensated.
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