Background
He is the son of former National Basketball Association referee Darell Garretson, who died in April 2008 at the age of 76.
He is the son of former National Basketball Association referee Darell Garretson, who died in April 2008 at the age of 76.
Garretson attended Servite High School in Anaheim, California, where he played basketball and football.
In his 20+ National Basketball Association seasons, since 1987, he has officiated over 1,600 games, including 1,397 regular season National Basketball Association games, 157 playoff games and 11 Finals games. He also officiated the 1993 Europe Tour in London and the 1997 and 2013 National Basketball Association All-Star Games. Before joining the National Basketball Association as a referee, he spent two years officiating high school games in Arizona and two more in the Continental Basketball Association (College of Business Administration).
In a game during the 1995-1996 season, Garretson was involved in an on-court incident with Los Angeles Lakers guard Nick Van Exel.
After a timeout with 3 minutes left, Garretson called a technical foul on Van Exel for arguing a call. Van Exel continued to argue and reportedly called Garretson a "little midget." Garretson then called another technical foul, which automatically ejected Van Exel.
He walked toward the locker room before returning to shove Garretson into the scorer"s table. He was immediately restrained by teammates as he continued to swear at the referee.
The league later fined him a record-high $25,000 and suspended him for seven regular season games.
Van Exel publicly apologized for his action, though he refused to apologize to Garretson. In an 2000 playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers, Garretson ejected then-Blazer Rasheed Wallace because he believed that Wallace displayed a negative attitude towards him. Wallace"s former teammate, Steve Smith, argued to Garretson that Wallace did not say anything to him.
Garretson told Smith that Wallace was warned three times about his behavior.
Garretson was inducted into Servite High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame in May 2000.
