Man, that seemed like a long eight-tenths of a second
Don’t know who was running the clock Thursday night in the Rose Garden. Sorry, this is an old one… but whoever it was on that clock, I want him timing the rest of my life.
NBA, Trail Blazers, Uncategorized | Dwight Jaynes | November 6, 2008
Finally, that ‘little something extra’ went our way. The clock operator was definately from Portland. The building completely errupted.
I used to run the clock when I was the manager of my high school’s basketball team. The most power I ever had.
I heard that the refs have a button on their belt that starts and stops the clock.
The refs have a tiny toggle switchbox they wear on their belts. ALL THREE start the clock with a ‘reset’ toggle. Watch them on an inbounds pass, one hand will always be on the toggle. First one to hit the toggle starts the clock. The sound of the whistle (the refs are mic’d) stops the clock. That is why we still had .8 seconds left — when Brandon fouled Yao it was early in Yao’s move. But the whistle blew and the clock stopped before the release (the ref gave Yao continuation).
A courtside computer logs the starts and stops in real time. I assume if one ref is too early or consistantly late on the toggle switch, they will be told at some future date. Same for whistles. Which ref blew the whistle on a foul, if they were first on a two-whistle call, etc. Home team clock management is long gone.
John Hollinger quoted you on his Rockets/Blazers recap. Goin’ big time Dwight! Get that money!
Ya, I’m with Zander. Lots of blogs today are talking about “the clock guy” but I’m almost positive that refs are in charge of the clock with a button exactly to address this type of “home town clock guy” issue. The clock guy does do the shot clock resets and stuff like that but the refs are the starters and stoppers of time.