Ed T. Rush (born 1942) is a former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

. He joined the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

as a referee in 1966, at age 24, becoming the youngest referee in NBA history. In 1973, he left for the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

but returned to the NBA when the ABA merged with that league in 1976. Rush became the NBA's director of officiating in 1998, and served in that position until 2003 when he was succeeded by Ronnie Nunn. He was married to three-time AIAW women's basketball tournament winning coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Cathy Rush.

Pac-12 refereeing controversy

On April 1, 2013,

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reported that during a meeting before the 2013

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

men's basketball tournament Rush had jokingly offered $5,000 or a trip to

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to referees who would properly handle the antics of Arizona head coach

Sean Miller Sean Edward Miller (born November 17, 1968) is an American college basketball coach who currently serves as head coach at the Texas Longhorns men's basketball, University of Texas at Austin. He previously served as head coach at the Arizona Wil ...

, who was called for a controversial technical foul in Arizona's semi-final 2-point loss to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, the first technical foul Miller had received that season. The report cited an unnamed referee who claimed that Rush intimidated the Pac-12's referees and " ulliedeveryone." Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott responded to the allegations in a statement saying that the reports had been investigated and that the conference believed Rush had made the offer "in jest."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rush, Ed 1942 births American Basketball Association referees NBA referees Living people Sportspeople from Philadelphia West Chester University alumni