Dick Bavetta

Richard W. Bavetta (born December 10, 1939) is an American retired referee for the National Basketball Association (NBA). He debuted in the league in 1975 and never missed an assigned game until 2014, and he holds the league record for most officiated games with 2,635.

His game on April 12, 2013, in Washington was his 2,600th consecutive game as an NBA official.

Bavetta was born in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York on December 10, 1939. His father was an officer for the New York Police Department, and his mother was a homemaker. Bavetta attended Power Memorial Academy in New York City (the same school future NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar attended) and is a 1962 graduate of St. Francis College in New York and played on the schools' basketball teams. He began officiating after his brother, Joe, who officiated for the American Basketball Association, convinced him that it would be an interesting career. A Wall Street broker for Salomon Brothers with an MBA in finance from the New York Institute of Finance, Bavetta began officiating games between fellow brokers in the Wall Street League, played at New York's Downtown Athletic Club, and later worked high school games. For ten years, he officiated Public and Catholic High School leagues in New York and later nine years in the Eastern Professional Basketball League, which later became the Continental Basketball Association.

In the mid-1960s, he began to attend regional referee tryouts in the hopes of becoming an NBA referee; however, he was rejected for eight straight years due to his small physique and unimposing size. Bavetta was finally hired by the NBA in 1975 following the retirement of Mendy Rudolph. He debuted December 2, 1975 at Madison Square Garden in an NBA game between the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics. His first ten years in the league were tough as he was constantly ranked bottom among NBA referees in performance evaluations and led the league in technical fouls and ejections called.

To improve his officiating, Bavetta refereed games for the New Jersey pro league and Rucker League in Harlem during the off-seasons and studied NBA rulebooks. In 1983, he became the first referee to undergo rigorous physical training. He ran six to eight miles and took three-hour naps every day. His effort paid off when he emerged as one of the best referees. In the 1980s, he was named chief referee, who has the power to approve or overrule calls made by other officials. He was assigned to officiate his first playoff game in 1986.

Bavetta's most memorable game occurred during a 1980s nationally televised contest between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics when he was forced to officiate an NBA game by himself after his partner, Jack Madden, broke his leg in a collision with Celtics guard Dennis Johnson. At one point in the game, Celtics forward Larry Bird and 76ers forward Julius Erving began to strangle each other and were ejected by Bavetta. Bavetta believed that this game assisted in the progression of his career in the NBA.

From 1990 to 2000, Bavetta regularly refereed playoff games and was ranked at the top among referees in terms of performance evaluation. In 2000, he was one of the highest-paid referees in the NBA, earning over $200,000 a year. Among those playoff games included Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, in which Bavetta ruled that a three-point basket made by Howard Eisley of the Utah Jazz was released after the shot clock buzzer sounded and thus would not count. However, television replays on NBC showed otherwise. Bavetta's career was threatened when he was accidentally hit in the nose by Pacers forward Jalen Rose, who was trying to punch Knicks center Patrick Ewing during a 1999 game between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks. Bavetta did not leave the game immediately, opting to wait until later in the day to have surgery. He returned the next day to officiate an Atlanta Hawks-New Jersey Nets game.

On February 8, 2006, Bavetta officiated his 2,135th NBA game, setting a league record for most games officiated that was previously held by Jake O'Donnell. Bavetta said the secret to his longevity was "wearing five pairs of socks", which he claims helped keep his feet in good shape. Contributing to his good health, Bavetta says he runs five to eight miles every day. For his longevity in the league, he has received the nickname "the Cal Ripken Jr. of referees".