{"id":11020,"date":"2024-01-17T09:10:34","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T14:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=11020"},"modified":"2024-01-18T13:45:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T18:45:07","slug":"making-the-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2024\/01\/17\/making-the-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the Call"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/span>\"Kevin
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MAKING THE CALL<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Alumnus and NBA Referee Kevin Scott Fails Forward into an Exciting Career<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In professional basketball, referees have a split second to make consequential decisions. With a whistle, they can alter the course of a game or the results of a world championship. They can incite the greatest joy or the fiercest anger in millions of fans. Making the right call means everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Georgia Southern alumnus Kevin Scott (\u201900, \u201902), the decision to become a professional referee didn\u2019t come quickly. It came from disappointing necessity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy life\u2019s dream was to play Division I baseball,\u201d he said. \u201cI put a lot of work into that, and I made it through the early stage of cuts [at Georgia Southern] and was asked to stay on and scrimmage with the team in fall tryouts. Ultimately, I got cut that week. I was devastated, and I remember sitting in my apartment there in Statesboro, wondering what I was going to do next.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For two months, Scott attempted to pick up the pieces and move on. As a sport management major, he was surrounded by student-athletes, equipment managers, trainers, coaches \u2014 remnants and reminders of his former dream. When he was least expecting it, however, he was presented with an opportunity that changed everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gene Sherry, executive director of Campus Recreation and Intramurals, and Nick Cochran, a Georgia Southern student and Scott\u2019s high school classmate in Toccoa, Georgia, showed up at Scott\u2019s apartment with a \u201csales pitch\u201d to start refereeing intramural games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott told them he\u2019d come out, but he didn\u2019t expect much from the experience. Needless to say, he was surprised by the result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI stepped on the floor for the first time and it\u2019s just hard to describe,\u201d he said. \u201cA feeling came over me \u2014 still to this day it just felt right. I had no idea the first time I stepped on the floor that you could officiate for a living. But I just knew this feeling. I\u2019ve never experienced that kind of passion before.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sherry, too, recognized Scott\u2019s passion and aptitude for refereeing. \u201cHe had this innate ability to concentrate, a skill crucial in refereeing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on years of refereeing experience at the high school and college levels, Sherry mentored Scott. He encouraged him to sign up for every camp, tournament and training event he could find. At one such camp, Scott caught the eye of a Southeastern Conference basketball referee, which opened the door to the next level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Committing to refereeing was difficult at first. Scott balanced a fulltime job with the Department of Transportation in Georgia while hemade his way through the college officiating ranks. He spent almost 10 years as a college basketball referee before his persistence paid off. He was hired into the NBA Development League in the fall of 2007. After five years of hard work, Scott officiated his first full professional game on Feb. 1, 2012, in Minneapolis, where the Minnesota Timberwolves faced the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember calling my parents before I left the hotel,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt sort of a numb, tingling sensation or feeling when I took the floor for that first time \u2014 just the finality and gravity and the crowd and the environment. That\u2019s the best way I can describe it. It\u2019s just like a mainline IV of a dream.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average sports fan or even the most seasoned high school referee doesn\u2019t always understand the intensity of officiating at the professional level. Scott says keeping up with the elite athletes in the NBA requires him to dedicate himself to year-round diet and fitness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach season I get a year older\u2026 but then there\u2019s a whole new wave of 18- and 19-year-olds coming into the league,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott says the biggest challenge of being a professional referee is being consistently right for an entire season. Every game now features 14 or 15 high-definition cameras catching each success and mistake. He says this takes a massive level of concentration and the ability to get past blowing a call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like the best referees are the referees that can sustain their concentration for the longest periods of time,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to have the mental acumen and the mental toughness to get to that place in your mind where you can just get to work and everything slows down. Where everything\u2019s quiet and you\u2019re able to block out all distractions and be totally engaged, locked in and focused. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Nick
Nick Cochran (L) and Gene Sherry (R) stand with Kevin Scott (C) at Game 3 of the 2023 NBA Finals in Miami. Cochran and Sherry played a large role in Scott choosing to become a referee. Photo provided by Gene Sherry.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWhen you make a mistake and you know you make a mistake. It can weigh on you,\u201d he added. \u201cIt can allow for several minutes of mistakes and not being in a good place mentally. So how well do you recover from your mistakes? What mechanisms do you have in place to recover to where you\u2019re right back operating at an extremely high, efficient level. That was a big challenge early on in my career \u2014 not allowing players and coaches to inflict self-doubt while I was refereeing a basketball game.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of this interview, Scott had officiated 653 regular season games and 35 playoff games. The NBA grades each of his games for accuracy. Due to his excellent performance last year, Scott reached the pinnacle of his career as a referee. On June 7, in Miami, he took the floor to officiate Game 3 of the 2023 NBA Finals. It\u2019s a memory he says he\u2019ll never forget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy first finals game. Wow. It was an emotional few days around that time, not only being able to cherish that with my family, but also just reflecting and thinking about all the people who went out of their way to help me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the stands were Scott\u2019s mother and father, his wife, Sarah, and the friends who helped him discover his passion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, just having both my parents there, Gene and Nick, two individuals who got me started, and my wife\u2026it\u2019s just something I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d said Scott. \u201cI\u2019ll be able to cherish that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI get emotional just thinking about it,\u201d said Sherry. \u201cIt was real special for him to include Nick and I along with his family.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his busy NBA schedule, Scott regularly returns to Georgia Southern to give back to the place where his passion began. Sherry, who is also president of the Southern Eagle Officials Association, hosts training camps for referees for the Georgia High School Association each year. The camp is a requirement for referees wanting to work the postseason. Scott comes down each year to teach and spend time with the aspiring referees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s a big deal for the students to meet an NBA referee,\u201d said Sherry. \u201cI don\u2019t even know if they understand the value of what they\u2019re getting. There are a lot of great referees, but they couldn\u2019t teach refereeing. But Kevin has that skill as well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Scott, giving back is part of his character. People invested in him, so he wants to invest in people\u2026especially people at Georgia Southern. And every time he walks back into the RAC in Statesboro, it feels like home again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInfluential, impactful individuals have helped me at some point over the last 24 years,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you talk about giving back, especially to Georgia Southern University, to the intramural program, to the intramural officials and officials at every level \u2014 well, there\u2019s no greater feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumnus and NBA Referee Kevin Scott Fails Forward into an Exciting Career In professional basketball, referees have a split second to make consequential decisions. With a whistle, they can alter the course of a game or the results of a world championship. They can incite the greatest joy or the fiercest anger in millions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":11231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"wp-custom-template-post-with-feature-top-section","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-11020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-fall-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}