Eddie F. Rush (born September 19, 1961) is a

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

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 titl ...

in the

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

(NBA). As of the

2006–07 NBA season The 2006–07 NBA season was the 61st season of the National Basketball Association. The San Antonio Spurs were crowned the champions after sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. Notable occurrences *The first NBA draft under the ne ...

, he had officiated 1,245 regular season, and 140 playoff games, including nine NBA Finals games.

Early life

Rush attended W.H. Spencer High School in

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it ...

. At Spencer, he played basketball and baseball. Following high school, he attended college and graduated from

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...

in 1983.

Officiating career

Prior to joining the NBA, Rush worked high school games for ten years before progressing to college and professional basketball leagues. At the collegiate level, he officiated for eight years in the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

and

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

s, as well as

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

. He worked First Round games in the 1991 and 1992 NCAA Tournaments. Later he officiated for five years of

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball m ...

officiating experience. Rush is no relation to long-time NBA referee and former Supervisor of Officials

Ed T. Rush Ed T. Rush (born 1942) is a former professional basketball Official (basketball), referee. He joined the NBA as a referee in 1966, at age 24, becoming the youngest referee in NBA history. In 1973, he left for the American Basketball Association b ...

, or to musician

Ed Rush Ed Rush is the stage name used by the drum and bass producer and DJ, Ben Settle (born 1973). Rush has been releasing records since 1992 and primarily with his musical partner Optical (Matt Quinn), since 1997. Along with Optical he is also the co ...

. Rush is the only NBA ref to have officiated the last game of the NBA Finals for four straight seasons (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008).

References

External links

National Basketball Referees Association
Living people National Basketball Association referees Sportspeople from Columbus, Georgia 1961 births African-American sports officials Georgia State University alumni Continental Basketball Association referees 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{1960s-US-basketball-bio-stub