When Push Comes to Shove: A Closer Look at Handling Volatile and Tense Situations

If you’ve ever been trained how to use a fire extinguisher, then someone has probably spoken to you about the “fire triangle.” Basically, for anything to burn, you need all three of heat, oxygen and a fuel. The approach to putting out a fire is to remove one of the sides of the triangle. For instance, you could use water to remove the heat, carbon dioxide to dilute the oxygen and so forth. Though few of us have ever been involved in a fight in a basketball game — or hope to — the approach to dealing with one is similar to fighting fires; you want to break the “fight triangle.”

To have a fight, you need participants, a motivation and the opportunity. Taking away any one of those elements marks the beginning of the way to restoring order. And no, that doesn’t involve all the available referees jack-knifing into the melee to break it up. Typically, it’s a more choreographed approach among the officials that serves to turn the tide. Discuss in your pregame a battle plan to follow should a tense situation ever escalate into a fight or melee in a game you are working. Know on the front end how to handle it and what to expect because once it occurs, emotions will be running very high and your pregame planning will prevail.

Watch for signs. With the exception of NHL hockey, very few fights in sports begin with a simple nod between the two combatants. Often, a player does something wrong, perhaps as an isolated incident or as a culmination of several irritations. The recipient then makes a snap decision that it’s time to take matters into his or her own hands and the fight begins. Remember that a fight is an actual event or an attempt to engage someone in a fight. 

Isolate the incident. Officials can act to keep the isolated incident from enflaming or they can see the buildup coming and take steps to prevent it. In the latter case, when things are building up, you can crack down on the individuals before the event so that they lose interest in fighting or are made aware of the consequences.

In the case of the isolated incident, the NBA teaches its officials to go to the person who was fouled and not to the instigator. The rationale is that if a fight isn’t going to start, then it doesn’t matter who you get to first. But if a fight is going to start, it’s going to come from the guy who’s picking himself up off the floor and deciding to retaliate. So one of the officials has to get to the player immediately and keep him from getting back at his assailant. It helps to get in the way and inform the possible combatant that the other player is through for the night (or whatever).

Frequently, that can be enough; you’ve removed the participant from the triangle. The second official must get to the instigator and get that player away from as many people as possible — other players, the fans or anyone else who might provoke that person more; you’re trying to remove the motivation from the participant. The third official should remove him or herself from the area and observe the benches and other players for secondary flare-ups. The third official should be cognizant of all bench players and prepared to eject anyone on the bench who sets one toe on the floor once the fight starts. One of the best deterrents to fighting is the certainty that everybody and their brother will be suspended if they even try to join the incident. The severe penalty that results with fighting attacks both the motivation and the availability of participants.

Get away and observe. OK, if you’re not quick enough to keep the combatants apart and they succeed in starting to fight, you have to go to Plan B. You need to figure out what is in your best interest and the game’s best interest. If two twin towers are punching aimlessly at one another, don’t risk injury to yourself. However, if you can safely get within the scuffle to grab one of the combatants, it’s always better than standing around and letting them whack away at one another. But always remember your safety first. Keep it from further escalating by mandating the other players get away from the fighters. One of the officials should continue to watch the bench area for any players leaving the bench or any spectators entering the fracas. The head coaches when beckoned will make their way onto the floor to help break up the fight and it is vital that they act to resolve the dispute, not further ignite the situation.

In NFHS basketball, you can’t send players from the court area once they’ve been ejected, so you’re faced with keeping them on the bench where they’re safe. You have to understand that at least one of the fighters may not be highly popular with the fans immediately behind the bench, so before you put the player in that jeopardy, get the game administrators and security personnel involved to control the scene in the bench areas or elsewhere as warranted. Once it’s safe to send the fighters and the other players to the bench areas, do so and then get together as a crew and agree upon what happened. You want to have that conversation on the floor in front of the table so that team members have to go through you if they wish to continue hostilities. Try to watch the background behind your crewmates for signs of trouble from the team or the spectators. 

Understanding the ramifications. Among the three officials, you want to agree on the identities of the players involved in the fight as well as those of any substitutes or bench personnel who left the bench and became involved. You also want to know about any substitutes or bench personnel who came onto the floor, but didn’t get involved in the fight. All of those people mentioned in the previous two sentences will be ejected and the technicals they receive will be added to the team foul count. The difference is that you will award two free throws for every fighter on one team in excess of the other. In other words, if three players, substitutes or bench personnel from team A fight, but only one on team B, team B will shoot four free throws when the game is resumed. As for bench personnel and substitutes who come on the floor but don’t fight, you will award two free throws only if one team has more on the court than the other. So even if everybody on team B’s bench enters the court and nobody from team A’s bench, team A will shoot only two free throws. Also in NFHS, the head coaches will be charged one indirect technical for each substitute or bench person who is ejected, but those indirects won’t be added to the team foul count. If the coach incurs two direct technicals or if his direct and indirect technicals add up to three, the coach is gone; he or she has to leave the confines of the gym. Of course, fighting is a flagrant technical foul and a fighter needs only one to be invited to leave.

Take your time. Once you’ve identified the participants, get it all recorded in the scorebook to your mutual satisfaction. Then use the scorebook as a reference to inform the coaches of your rulings. Talk to the coaches with at least a second official around to monitor the proceedings. It’s good to be a little bit deliberate through the whole procedure to give cooler heads a chance to prevail. Once everybody understands what the results of the fracas were, start the game again.

It’s an oxymoron to suggest that the officials can manage a well-organized fight but, as we’ve seen, there’s plenty you can do to defuse it and limit the effect. The important things are to take the necessary steps to break the fight triangle and then make sure you don’t all focus on the fight and lose track of the non-participants. That’s where things typically go from bad to worse.

And above all, don’t think of being involved in a fight as a failing on the part of you and your crew. That’s like saying the police are responsible for the fights they have to break up. But remember, like the police, the path forward is to follow a pre-planned procedure and make sure the right persons are brought to justice.

Written by Tim Sloan, Bettendorf, Iowa, who officiates high school basketball and football.