Peter Phipps, a collegiate Hall of Fame basketball player and professional referee, has enjoyed a remarkable and noteworthy career. Phipps, who is an uncle to Scituate High School English teacher Jennifer Curtis, resides in Canada but grew up in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. On Tuesday, December 12, 2023, Phipps met with SHS Introduction to Journalism and Advanced Journalism students over Zoom to answer questions and discuss his illustrious career as a local and FIBA-credentialed Professional Basketball Official.

A major influence in Peter Phipps’s life was basketball. At an early age, he enjoyed playing at his local YMCA. At the age of 12, Phipps got the chance to sit courtside at a Celtics game, where he was able to interact with many of the players, including Celtics legends Tommy Heinsohn, Bill Russell, K.C. Jones and others as they ran onto the court. Phipps acknowledged the magnitude of that moment and how it shaped his love of the game: “To have that opportunity was tremendous.”

In his high school years, Phipps played basketball for Bishop Feehan High School  in Attleboro. Right out of high school, he was recruited to play for many schools in the Northeast but chose Acadia University in Nova Scotia where his team won the 1971 National Championship during his senior year. Because of the incredible success Phipps had at the collegiate level, he wanted to stay active in the sport of basketball beyond college. 

After coaching basketball locally for a few years, the time commitment was hard to manage with his young family and full-time job, so with a few of his former college basketball teammates, Phipps turned to officiating. Along with a small group of like-minded officials, he worked his way up the referee ladder to work games at the high school and university levels. “We became really committed to officiating in basketball,” he noted.

Not only was Phipps focused and committed–he also excelled. Phipps realized early on in his officiating career that “you have to be able to judge the contact that makes a difference to the player,” while also considering “who is responsible for that contact.” Phipps commented, “During the course of moving up the ranks, you need to go to camps where others will tell you if your judgment is good or not.” Phipps attended a number of officiating camps throughout the beginning of his career as a referee. Doing so helped prepare him for the bigger games to come further down the road in his career as an official. 

When asked about the process of becoming a referee, Phipps equated it to playing a sport: “You have to go through stages…you could start out with youth games. If you’re good at that, you’ll be recruited to officiate at a higher level.” Acknowledging that being a lifelong basketball player helped him to stand out as a referee, Phipps also referenced Scott Foster, whom he considers one of the best officiators in the NBA, and what he learned from him.

Phipps described how Foster breaks down each possession into three components: “You have eight seconds to pass the ball in and get it over half court. Then there’s eight seconds when a team is trying to initiate their offensive structure. Lastly, there’s eight seconds before the 24-second clock expires where someone is going to drive to the basket or shoot it. You treat each 24 second as a focus. eight seconds, eight seconds, eight seconds.” Phipps explained that his strategy helped him progress as an official.

As any sports spectator knows, referees can experience unsportsmanlike reactions from players or even coaches on the court. Phipps said this is to be expected, and staying calm and in control is the key to managing these situations. Additionally, these instances rarely impact his performance: “I don’t want to go into another game with a chip on my shoulder because of a coach or a player.”

When asked directly about his authority on the court, Phipps acknowledged that he has the power to eject a player–and even a coach–from a basketball game if they are acting inappropriately, saying it falls back on “the conduct of the player and the conduct of the coach.” Phipps emphasized that the officials are in control of the game: “As a ref, you’re supposed to take the tension down, by warning them and reminding them that their behavior is getting close to crossing the line.” Phipps likes to urge other referees to “take care of it immediately” when a player displays bad sportsmanship, his mantra being, “You mess with the bull, you’ll get the horns.” 

A highlight of Phipps’s career was being selected as an International Basketball Federation (FIBA) referee, and he detailed the intense process of becoming a high school, college, professional, and international referee. To receive an international license and become a FIBA referee, you must go to a certified international testing site and earn a “level five status.” To achieve that, you have to pass a written test, a physical appearance test, and a floor test.

Phipps received his FIBA license, and in 1994, he was selected to officiate the 1994 United States “Dream Team II” versus Australia in Toronto, Canada. This game featured players like Shaquille O’Neal, Shawn Kemp, Reggie Miller, Alonzo Mourning, Kevin Johnson, and Dominique Wilkins. He later traveled to Mexico, Spain, France, and twice to Brazil to referee games and continue his education as a professional basketball official. Phipps warmly relayed the memory of officiating the 1996 Gold Medal game in Mallorca off the coast of Spain where the US defeated Yugoslavia. He was awarded the signed game-winning Gold Medal Basketball, which he proudly displayed to students during the Zoom interview, stating, “It doesn’t get much better than that.”

When asked if he had any advice for someone interested in becoming a basketball referee, Phipps explained that visiting a local organization of basketball officials could be a first step: “You should go to one of their clinics and see if you like it,” he suggested. Phipps said he is trying to encourage “more and more young people, especially players, to officiate youth basketball.” Although there is a lot of pressure when officiating lower levels of basketball, Phipps emphasized that you can receive a good feel as to whether or not you enjoy it, as well as making a good amount of money doing so.  

Throughout his career, Phipps has mentored over 500 officials. When referees email him questions and video clips, he is happy to conference with them: “We would pick out situations where they were in the wrong positions or right positions,” adding, “It’s important to give back.”

Currently busy officiating high school basketball, Phipps emphasized a unique aspect of officiating: “You can start at the high school level and go to the international level and then make your way back down the ladder.” Phipps remarked, “Everyone wants to be inside the ropes,” adding, “Basketball officiating has taken me from a kid to where I am today.”