TAB Baldwin is one with the call for mutual respect on the heels of the UAAP Office of the Commissioner’s urging of decency in terms of interactions between coaches and referees.
However, as much as he shares the same intent, he’s baffled that his quest for clarification ended up with him getting a T.
“The commissioner said there should be mutual respect. I get a technical foul - and it will be on the referee's microphone tonight - for literally saying, ‘Can I ask you a question?’ And I get a technical foul for that,” the Ateneo coach shared, pointing to that incident late in the third quarter in Saturday’s 71-66 overtime loss to National U.
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“I don't think in any universe that indicates respect and I'll just leave it at that because the facts are there, the audio will be there, and they can call me a liar if they want, but I'm not, and I don't expect any action to be taken or anything else,” he added.
“I just want to agree with the commissioner that there should be respect and above all, there should be respect for the game, and that should govern the behavior of everybody in the game.”
Tab's take on officiating
It's a mind-boggling turn of events for Baldwin who also understood where the Office of the Commissioner is coming from after the recent barrage of criticism thrown at referees.
To an extent, he commiserated, noting, “I think some people around this issue have come under criticism that don't deserve it.”
“Referees, like players, like coaches, we're all performers. We have different roles and to be held accountable for our performance is normal, it's natural.”
“I guess they just don't want the coaches to be the ones holding the referees accountable even though they ask us to do evaluations of them, which we do. And they do those as well, and they provide those to us and they don't always agree, but sometimes, they're pretty close. So I think there's an effort going in to develop the quality of refereeing.”
At the end of the day, Baldwin said that all he and his fellow coaches want is a fair and consistent officiating game-in and game-out.
“I think there's still room for all of us to improve,” he ended.
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