It's a pleasure to welcome former Olympic official Scott Butler, who had a 22-year professional career in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL), working over 500 games including 12 consecutive grand finals series. ⁣

⁣

His FIBA career dates back to 1997 as he’s officiated multiple World Cups (’06, ‘10) and 2 Olympic games (Athens ‘04, Beijing ‘08). Scott retired from officiating due to a knee injury in 2011 and is currently the Head of Referees for the NBL. ⁣

⁣

In this episode, we recall some of Scott’s classic FIBA games from the mid-2000s in an era that featured some highly competitive teams for the U.S. including Argentina, Spain, Greece, & more. We talked about improving game and crew awareness, how to not let the game get behind us, and discussed some of the major differences between the professional game and international competition. ⁣

⁣

Additionally, we hit on another vital and helpful theme- 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘮. ⁣

⁣

𝗧𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹-𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗽 𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗼𝗻.𝗰𝗼𝗺/𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘀