Thought of the Week: 9/14/09

"Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions.
You may have a heart of gold -- but so does a hard-boiled egg."
- Unknown

This week's TOTW is inspired by the start of the Basketball League at the gym I work at. I was handed this task in pieces...so it's going to be some work to get it back on track, but a task that I am taking on. In any case, tonight was the first night. First and foremost you mix passion and testosterone and there is bound to be some conflict. So I have been involved with the league for the last 2 seasons. This is just the first time it has been given solely to me. The whole time I have been involved we have had the same referees. I hadn't heard any negative feedback about these refs and in my experience with them they do a good job. Being a ref is a tough job, and like I said testosterone/passion. It is a 3rd person perspective, interepretation, and enforcement of the basic rules of the sport along with controlling flow of the game and keeping players safe. Will they always get the right call? Probably not. Will a player feel like he was fouled and the ref disregarded it? Probably. So as the seasons have progressed I've witnessed some heavy encounters.

Last night, one of the players (we'll call him SecurityGuard) was upset at a no call and walked out of the gym. Upon returning to the gym, while the game was going on, he intentionally bumped into the referee from behind. Nothing errupted from that other than the game being temporarily stopped, and he left. The refs had a brief discussion and informed his team that they would discuss it with me, and that rules indicate a suspension for one game. The added twist is that I am friends with many of these players outside of work, SecurityGuard being one of them. So while I'm running the board for the last game, SecurityGuard comes over and sits next to me. When the game is done I just ask for his side of story. He went up for layup and his feet were taken out from under him, and the ref did nothing. He said as a ref before, that should be an automatic call. I asked him, when he came back in, did he intentionally bump the ref, and he said yes. I called the ref and asked for his side of the story. He says the defender was getting out of the way and felt it was a no call. I told him that I would talk with the other ref, and make a decision. I did not see the full play, but I did see him hit the court like he was hit, not busting his ass on his own. However, my decision is somewhat already made. By the simple fact that SecurityGuard intentionally made contact with my referee. He can't not be reprimanded for that, and unfortunately while it may not negate that there should have been a call, it does take the attention off the possibly deeper issue that needs to be addressed. It will make my suspesion of him the focal point, and not the next steps of addressing the officials and how they manage the game and the players. While he didn't intend to harm the ref, his actions dictated otherwise.

So this week I encourage all of you to take a little extra time to think before you act. I'm a Pisces, I know all about letting your emotions get the best of you. While passion and good intentions are great, those can all fade to the background and be misinterpretated with a simple action or gesture. A split second decision, can destroy a lifetime of good intentions. Make sure your actions are in line with your intentions. People will remember what you did...not what you "meant to do".

=Know Your Greatness=