Dick Bavetta
| Dick Bavetta | |
|---|---|
Bavetta in 2013
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| Born |
December 10, 1939 Brooklyn, New York |
| Residence | Ocala, Florida |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | St. Francis College |
| League | National Basketball Association |
| Years active | 1975–2014 |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Weight | 156 lb (71 kg) |
| Spouse(s) | Paulette |
| Children | Christine & Michele |
| Basketball Hall of Fame | |
Richard W. "Dick" Bavetta (born December 10, 1939) is an American retired professional basketball referee for the National Basketball Association (NBA). Since starting in 1975, he had never missed an assigned game and holds the league record for most officiated games. 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 mid-1960s, he began to attend regional referee tryouts in the hopes of becoming an NBA referee; however, he was rejected for nine 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.
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