basketball referees

"In need of money to pay her basketball fees, fourteen-year old Malia King registers for a refereeing course at her middle school. Refereeing gives her a whole new perspective on the game, and helps to improve her own play. But things get complicated when Malia is assigned to referee her younger sister Flo's games, especially when she makes a call that leads to a big loss for her school. As people around Malia start pressuring her to favor the team from her own school she has to choose between calling a fair game or becoming a social outcast"--Provided by publisher.

"In need of money to pay her basketball fees, fourteen-year old Malia King registers for a refereeing course at her middle school. Refereeing gives her a whole new perspective on the game, and helps to improve her own play. But things get complicated when Malia is assigned to referee her younger sister Flo's games, especially when she makes a call that leads to a big loss for her school. As people around Malia start pressuring her to favor the team from her own school she has to choose between calling a fair game or becoming a social outcast"--Provided by publisher.

Profiles college basketball referees. The author did research by spending a season on the road with college basketball. He watched all the games, listened in on candid locker room conversations and those in hotel lobbies, and explored the challenges college basketball referees must endure. A ref's goal is fairness and neutrality. He must not care about who wins and who loses. His passion must be to do the right thing on the court, and this is shaped by character, training, and a rare kind of honor.

Jason Lewis, a former Metro University star basketball player who lost several fingers fighting as a soldier in World War II, takes the opportunity to get back in the sport as a referee and finds himself working in the professional league and trying to come to terms with the path his life has taken.

Tells the story of NBA basketball referee Tommy Nu?ez, the only Hispanic to officiate for a major league sport, discussing his troubled youth in the Phoenix barrio, and how he turned his life around, now serving as an inspiration for young people through a compaign of public speaking and fund raising.