The irREFutable Magazine 2 February 2021 by The Irrefutable Magazine Collection

AN OFFICIALS PERSPECTIVE February 2021

On the Cover

February 2021

What’s inside

Growing our Game

The Fandom of a Referee

An interview with Chiene Joy Jones

Because Representation Matters

Critical Thinking

Making It Wright

Daddy, What’s A Technical Foul?

For the Frequent Flying Referee

Seat 23A

Issue 2

February 2021 Staff

Kevin Sparrrock

Art Director

Ralph Fornoles

Editor

Ralph Fornoles Kevin Sparrock

Photography

Editorial Contributing Asha P. Sparrock

How to Digitally Document your (Ref) Life

Latest Podcasts

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This Months Comic

Growing Our Game

An interview with Chiene’ Joy Jones. By: Ralph the Ref

Chiene’

has the unenviable task of growing an often underserved, forgotten, brand of Basketball in New York City. She is the founder of Grow Our Game, built on the premise of teaching girls in the NYC area to love the game in the same way the game has affected, impacted, and inspired her throughout her life. Not only is she the founder of this wonderful initiative, she is also a long time coach, a former player, and of course, a ref on the rise. I always credit Chiene’ Joy Jones as the person that made me snap out of it - when the CoronaVirus was ravaging the state of New York, when I was ranting about not reffing and not knowing what to do with Referee Rant.

Ralph the Ref: That Nike Commercial! - I was floored, the women that were featured, all while you narrated, those were people that all were important to you. What did those people mean to you, and how did you get that opportunity? Chiene’ Joy Jones: The bigger piece for me was to make sure that I spoke up for what I believed was the right thing for our girls. Speaking up for those that are marginalized and silenced. Girl’s basketball on the grassroots level needs a lot of help. There were gatekeepers that were helping in teaching the game that are no longer with us, and are retired. And that passing of the torch; it’s changed from the passing of the torch to the passing of the dollar. It’s becoming far more transactional than transformational. People are trying to make money, as opposed to giving them the opportunity and giving up the time to teach the girls and fully show that love and passion. It was incredible that Nike found us, even though we’ve always been in this curious space and I’m sure they asked, ‘What’s going on with them? I keep hearing about them?’ I was just being me. But to partner with Nike officially, and announce it, build the relationship, through this new campaign, has been tremendous, and it gave me the opportunity to honor those women who were so instrumental in my life. The one person that I wish could make it but couldn’t was Janice Quinn, my college basketball coach from NYU. But outside of her, my most recent mentor, Latasha Morgan - she just literally just finished battling stage 3 breast cancer, and declared cancer free last year, which was an incredible blessing - she’s been very instrumental for the latter part of my career, the last 6 years. The woman that was speaking was wearing a

The Fandom of a Referee By Ralph the Ref

Super

Nintendo Classic has been such a bridge for me and my son, Mason, to connect. As if Apple Arcade isn’t enough as a Christmas present, he is inundated with that tablet of his. The iPad is his beginning, middle, and end - every day. He goes to school with it, goes on break with it, and after school, he’s excited to get on another hour(s) of screen time. The Super Nintendo has given him access to my own screen staring experience, a way for us to bond, to bridge the new and the old. It was fitting I show him the game Madden 95 the ubiquitous Football Video game that reigned supreme in the 1990’s. On the default screen, it starts with the Buffalo Bills being the away team, and the home team being the Cowboys. I asked him what team he wanted to be - he said he wanted to be the Ravens, an ode to our favorite team; little did he know of a past life, when I was near his age, and I was a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan. What happened? I died. Hard. If you’re old enough to remember, we know the exploits of the Buffalo Bills in the early 1990’s. They were one of the most consistent teams, the most completely balanced team in the NFL, many years running. I was awestruck as a 9-year-old during Super Bowl XXV, with the Air Force flying past Tampa Stadium, overlooking the capacity crowd, getting swept up with the turmoil of Operation Desert Storm as a backdrop. Don’t forget the voice that is Whitney Houston, who had a stirring rendition of the National Anthem. Thurman Thomas seemed as though he gained 1,000 yards that game, with Jim Kelly at the helm as the quarterback with the no-huddle offense. It was a win-win, as Buffalo, in upstate New York, also played a team from New York, the Giants. I never gravitated towards the Giants because of that game. Fortunately, in the waning seconds of the game, the Bills had a chance to win the game, with Scott Norwood ready to hit a field goal to seal it. But anyone that’s old enough remembers wide right. I will never forget. Next year, we wait. And that next year, they seemed to be a lot better, only to have the same result. The only thing different was the venue for the Super Bowl was different, and they lost to a different opponent - this time it was the Redskins, now known in present as the Washington Football team.

Next year, we wait. And that next year, they seemed to be a lot better, only to have the same result. 15

These are traumatizing tribulations for a young fan like me. It was the perfect way to get heartbroken as a 9-10-11-12-year-old, to experience the trauma of losing in the Super Bowl(s). By the time it was the third year, there was this cliche that never made any sense to me until it conveniently fit the situation. “The third time’s a charm,” my mom used to say to me. That got defenestrated as the Bills lost again - this time to the Dallas Cowboys. “America’s Team” they were called, an ode to all their success they had in the 70’s, something that I can’t relate to. But there was next year, and we played the Cowboys again. This had to be the time! Nope - same result - this time, we lost; even worse. Two things I remember - the ridicule of going to school with all my classmates with the embarrassment of explaining 4 straight years of losing in the Championship game, but also Emmitt Smith, the Cowboy running back constantly putting footballs in a trunk for his personal trophy collection. Ugh. In 8th grade, I made a decision. I wanted to pick a team that had no history. As fate would have it, Art Modell, owner of the Cleveland Browns, made a deal with the city of Baltimore, to move the franchise to Maryland, changing its name entirely. The nascent team thought it was too disrespectful to keep by name, the Browns, as the nomenclature could only stay in Cleveland. The new team would be named the “Ravens.”

This had to be the time! 16

And so, in 9th grade, I made my hard pivot to being a Ravens fan. 25 years, 2 championships, and a week after playing Madden 95’ on Super Nintendo with my son, the dream matchup that could never happen in that video game happened in real life. The Bills played the Ravens. That’s what made it weird that 25 years later, my old team (Bills) played my new team (Ravens) which never happened before, and I hope it never happens again. I felt emotions that are not only uncharacteristic of a referee but as a fan. It extirpated a feeling that would only come up if the Bills played the Ravens, something I never accounted for. I thought of my 10-year-old self, and how this would be how I should feel beating the Ravens. The Ravens didn’t exist, and now is now, with the Ravens as my team, through and through. I’ve been with them since Day 1. I watched the first time when they won the Super Bowl beating those same Giants that haunted me when I was 9. Then I saw them win a second championship the year after my Mom died, and a few days after my son was born. Something about watching those two Super Bowl wins in my lifetime, experiencing it as an adult, made losing those Buffalo Bill Super Bowls OK.

MIxed emotions ensued, something that I wouldn’t even be able to describe in words during that game. I was even-keeled, lacked emotion - a trait that absorbs only naturally through wizened years of being the neutral party as an official. I see the Bills, I see Stephon Diggs, the Wide Receiver for the team, and feel ambivalence. I can’t root for the Bills now, but it’s my old team! I’m a Ravens fan, I said to myself. Yet, my dream of the Buffalo Bills winning crept back in my psyche. The game was low scoring until the 2nd half when a few breaks didn’t go the Ravens way; in one fell swoop, the Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson was sacked, and concussed out of the game, only led the Bills to the AFC Championship or the game before the Super Bowl. As time expired, my heart sunk. This would have been my dream in the 90’s - but I only long for a time like that. It is now 2021, and just like the Bills as a kid, the Ravens, at least this year, disappointed me the same exact way. The Ravens have had their share of success; just not that day. The Bills taught me how to be an honorable loser, to take it to the chin, with dignity. All of these experiences of watching the Bills lose all these years prepared me for this year’s Ravens loss, all from a Bills win. I realized that I’m not only an official - I am human. Go Ravens.

REFEREERANT.COM

Because Representation Matters By Kevin Sparrock

First

and foremost, I am a comic geek. I might have stopped collecting comics, but I know my artistic roots. In July 1966, the Black Panther appeared in the pages of the Fantastic Four issue number 52. You didn’t have to sell me on the movie. I was excited to see the film regardless of reviews or people’s opinions, good or bad. What made the Marvel Comics 2018 film even more spectacular was the fantastic performance of Chadwick Boseman. This brother played in four Marvel cinematic films as T’Challa, AKA The Black Panther. He acted in the film 42 as the great Jackie Robinson’s, as James Brown in Get on up, and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall. Black Panther is a historical moment in film because it’s the first time you see a superhero of color on a screen. With a predominantly black cast, black director, black costume designers, and black hairstylists, the film gross of over $ 700 million is second domestically of the Marvel Cinematic universe behind The Avengers: Engame. The film is the fourth overall lifetime grossing domestic film behind Star Wars: Episode VII- The Force Awakens, Avengers: Endgame, and Avatar. Historically, film and media in America were places where African Americans could not play themselves, as white people dressed in blackface to reinforcing white supremacy, stereotypes, and demeaning representation. Black Panther is an example of how representation in film is crucial to presenting the full story.

Representation matters so that the full story can be told, and so you don’t have a one-sided story that isn’t a fair representation of a diverse population. The media needs to represent the society that it serves because if people don’t see themselves, then it’s almost like a lack of care that’s communicated to people. There has to be some diverse voices that represent everyone in the society that can speak from the voice of those people because there are different issues and different things that are of importance to us. I think that there needs to be more of an effort to seek out diverse voices and diverse representation with a conscious effort (2018). (Cheriss May, photojournalist )

By Ralph the Ref

Critical

thinking is a skill sorely lacking in 2021, let alone in the landscape of officiating. The rise of misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and echo chambers that support all of this false news, has made those that are seeking truth, credible, and reliable sources to be second-guessed. Critical thinking is the analysis of facts; of judgment. The subject is complex, and several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, unbiased analysis, or evaluation of factual evidence. This phenomenon is prevalent in the game of officiating. The road in reffing is long, winding, and different for everyone. Each and all have a path unique to them, with twists and turns that could be a shortcut for someone, a detour for another, and a dead-end for some. In the formative years of reffing, information is aplenty; coupled with your ability to perform, and the environment that you are exposed to that informs how you feel about things. Truth be told, I learned this skill, personally, through my growth in reading books. It taught me to have a skeptical mind with everything I read, looking at something, and not immediately taking it as fact. I would often read something that opposed what I just read, only to come up with a new, unique conclusion. Another tactic I would use, that would spill out to my own life, is when I think of a subject matter, when I started thinking of two people that had differing opinions on many things, but agree on this same subject matter, yet come to this conclusion from a different angle. Sound familiar? This is always at the forefront of any official’s experience. Take, for instance, the take of a mentor. Whether it be in reffing or in life, we gravitate towards a mentor because of their wisdom, the path that they have paved the way for us to walk easier, as we sublimate their experiences and make it our own - only to carve out our own unique path. Mentors are always willing to help and are invaluable in expediting our growth, both as an official and personal. But critical thinking should

I would often read something that opposed what I just read, only to come up with a new, unique conclusion. 25

Making it Wright

An interview with Richard Wright Division 1 Basketball referee

By Kevin Sparrock

“The Cage”

“The Cage” is a historic non-regulation sized basketball court located in the heart of Greenwich Village, New York City. It’s beyond small, and the court is fenced in on all sides, and in some places, the sideline spared a slim three-foot distance from the chain-link base. The Cage housed the West 4th Street basketball league, which premiered some of the best Tri- Stated ballplayers. New York City playground legend Speedy Williams, N.B.A. players Smush Parker, Rafer Alston, and the likes of the late great New York Knicks All-Star Anthony Mason have graced the blacktop. It was on this blacktop that I first saw Richard Wright. He was strong and quick. He could rebound and shoot with the best of them. After his playing days, Richard joined the officiating ranks, working 15 years as a Division 1 Women’s basketball official. He worked in the American East, the IVY league, M.A.A.C., Northeast conference, and the Colonial (C.A.A.). He was blessed to work the W.N.I.T. (Women’s National College Basketball Tournament) twice, the D3- Final Four 2 times, and the D2 regionals 5 times. Currently, he works in Division 2 and 3, mentoring younger officials as they develop. He came up through the New York S.U.B.O.A. (Sports United Benevolent Officials Association). The NY Basketball Referee Organization. S.U.B.O.A. is a notfor-profit basketball organization that prepares men and women to enter the vocation of basketball officiating. Richard is an anomaly of sorts. What made Richard stand out was his arm. Richard was born with a visible disability. His right arm was noticeably shorter than his left. When asked about the clinical diagnoses of his arm, he replied, “You know what, I’ve never known a name for it. According to my Mom, she was a diabetic at birth. So that might have played a role in my deformity. At birth, I actually couldn’t move my arm. I had an operation when I was eight years old. And I had to get some bones put in my shoulder so I could make it mobile because at one time my arm was stationary.”

The Fandom of a Referee

“Daddy, What’s A Technical Foul” By Asha Pearl Sparrock For as long as I can remember, my dad has had two jobs: artist and referee. I remember thinking, “When I grow up, I know I’m an adult because I’ll have a bunch of jobs doing all the things I love.” Little did I realize, after working 12-14 hours shifts 5 times a week, I was not “adulting”. He once said, “When you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Did he love being screamed at by people all of the time? The first time I went to one of my dad’s games, he warned my brother and I. “Don’t cheer for me. I’ll look up at you and nod. If someone asks who you’re here for, don’t say that I’m the ref.” I didn’t understand. My thoughts went to the movie, GoodFellas. What I understood from the movie at the time was that these men were doing things that other people shouldn’t know about. I equated that to my dad. Was he a gangster? I tried to like basketball. I really did. Till this day, it’s one of the more bearable sports I can watch, but I’m not rushing to my phone to check the score of the Nets games. At 13, my brother and I were placed in basketball camp for 2 weeks out of the summer. Although I probably should have learned the meaning of teamwork and how to shoot 3-pointers, I instead left that experience learning a new nickname for my brother. That summer was the sweatiest I ever had. I choked back tears every afternoon my dad would pick us up. “How was camp today?” “It was fun!” I yelled through the fabricated enthusiasm which I was sure my dad could see right through. I never wanted to admit that I didn’t like basketball. It wasn’t just basketball, but any sport. Fearful of coming across as spoiled or stand-offish for not understanding what the importance of “teamwork” is, I made a few attempts to go to football games and wrestling matches with my friends. All that came out of those experiences was drinking hot chocolate on the icy bleachers and trying to get my crush to notice me. During the long drives to distant games, my dad often practiced his signals. My

Was he a gangster?

nerves would shoot up while he has one hand on the wheel and the other in the air while he whispers, “Technical foul.” Still too young to sit in the front seat, mesmerized by the focus in his actions, I’d try to imitate his movement. “Foul. Travel. Technical foul.” “Daddy?” “Yes, Pearl?” “What’s a technical foul?” “Well, it’s sort of like a foul for being rude or actin’ out of pocket.” “Oh. Can someone in the audience get a technical foul if they’re being rude?” He chuckled and briefly glimpsed in the backseat in what seemed like disbelief. “Sometimes.” I assumed he recalled a time where he ejected a fan for saying something particularly wild. In a perfect world, our parents are proud of everything we do. Every endeavor we thrust ourselves into, they give unconditional support. In an alternate perfect world, we do exactly what our parents would like us to do and we have no complaints. Many journeys I partook in revolve around how I thought my dad would feel about it. Often, when bringing my siblings and I to a game, his colleagues would brag about how great of a referee he is and when are we gonna be out there on the court? I felt a level of obligation to be involved in athletics even if it meant keeping up with the shot clock.

Seat 23A Pay it forward

By Kevin Sparrock

purposely grabbed an 8 am flight to get some extra rest. I knew I would have a challenging game to officiate the night before when Syracuse plays Wake Forest in conference play. In the hotel room, I stayed up late to review game film and break down my performance. I had a 6 am wake up, and I made my way to the airport. Amidst a pandemic, I am thankful that United Airlines kept my flight status. After being a frequent flyer for over 20 years, I just needed to fly a set number of segments to maintain my Silver status, and this allowed me to get that occasional free upgrade to the first-class cabin. I hadn’t received an upgrade in a while, but to my surprise, when boarding began, I received an email instructing me that I the upgraded to Seat 1C. Even with a short hour and a half flight, I was appreciative. For obvious safety reasons, COVID19 caused United Airlines to change its boarding process. Currently, passengers start boarding from the rear of the plane, and it didn’t matter that I was in first class. I would be boarding last, but I wasn’t in a rush. I could avoid overcrowding on the jetway, and being in first class after a challenging game, felt like Thanksgiving turkey with stuffing and a side of gravy. Don’t forget the mashed potatoes. The United Airlines gate agent announced, “Now boarding row 23”. A young woman in military camouflage uniform with a colossal backpack stood up and began to approach the jetway. I was too far away to see what branch of the service she represented, but I assumed she was either Army or National Guard. She might have been all of 5 foot 5 inches tall. The backpack was almost as big as her body, but she was doing her thing. She threw the bag over her shoulder and was on her way. She ended a conversation with a fellow passenger, smiling as if she didn’t have a care in the world. She’s in 23. That’s the last row of the plane. The thought came to mind to give up my first-class seat to the young lady. Giving up my seat wasn’t a first for me. Once, my wife and I traveled together on vacation, and I could get her an upgrade. My wife wanted to sit with me during the flight, and there weren’t

She’s in 23. That’s the last row of the plane. 45