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American basketball player, coach, and referee
John Nucatola
(November 17, 1907 ? May 9, 2000) was an American professional
basketball
player, coach and
referee
. He was enshrined in the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
on 1 May 1978.
Biography
[
edit
]
John Nucatola officiated some of the greatest games in the
ECAC
, Atlantic Coast, Southern and Big Eight Conferences, along with the
NCAA
and
NIT
tournaments. He also dabbled in the professional arenas of the
American Basketball League
,
Basketball Association of America
, and the
NBA
.
Nucatola was one of the original referees in the NBA when the league was organized as the BAA in
1946
. Nucatola was one of the founding fathers of the College Basketball Officials Association and served as supervisor of officials for the Ivy League and the ECAC before being named the NBA Supervisor of Officials. In a life dedicated to the development of basketball and basketball officiating, Nucatola conducted more than 1,200 clinics worldwide, as well as authoring
Officiating Basketball
.
He was called basketball's "greatest official" by Hall of Famer
Clair Bee
. Nucatola believed the referee's most important duty was to make the right call rather than merely assert authority. He often urged officials to be willing to reconsider their calls, and was a strong advocate of the three-man officiating crew.
References
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