Ken Mauer

Infobox Person
name = Ken Mauer

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birth_date = birth date and age|1955|4|23
birth_place = St. Paul, Minnesota
death_date =
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education = University of Minnesota (Bachelor's degree, 1977)
occupation = NBA referee
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parents =
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nationality = USA
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Ken Mauer Jr. (born April 23, 1955 in St. Paul, Minnesota)cite web|title=Ken Mauer #41|url=http://www.probasketballrefs.com/Default.aspx?tabid=106|publisher=National Basketball Referees Association|accessdate=2007-06-09] is a professional basketball referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA) since the 1986-87 NBA season. As of the beginning of the 2006-07 NBA season, Mauer has officiated in 1,167 regular season and 67 playoff games, including one NBA Finals game. (In 2008, Mauer officiated an additional 2 NBA Finals games). Mauer wears uniform number 41.

Personal life

Mauer attended Harding Senior High School in St. Paul and later attended and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1977. At Minnesota, Mauer played baseball and was named an All-Big Ten player. Mauer comes from a family heavily involved in athletics. Ken is a second cousin of Major League Baseball catcher Joe Mauer. [cite web|title=Jim Souhan: Grandpa is back in saddle|url=http://www.startribune.com/150/story/498565.html|author=Souhan, Jim|publisher="Star Tribune"|date=2007-04-12|accessdate=2007-06-09] Ken's father and four brothers were all refereescite web|title=Mauer stood tall -- and pays the price|url=http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/hughes/1141856.html|last=Hughes|first=Frank|publisher=ESPN.com|date=2001-03-09|accessdate=2007-06-09] , including his brother Tom Mauer, a referee in the Women's National Basketball Association.cite web|title=July 2 a key date for Twins|url=http://www.twincities.com/walters/ci_6171108|publisher="St. Paul Pioneer Press"|last=Walters|first=Charley|date=2007-06-18|accessdate=2007-07-27] Outside of officiating, Mauer is a guest speaker at basketball camps and clinics and charitable and social groups. Mauer's hobbies include cars, art, theater, movies, and traveling.

NBA officiating career

Early career

Mauer officiated for 12 years in the state of Minnesota, nine years at the colligiate level, and later six years in the Continental Basketball Association before being hired by the NBA prior to the 1986-87 season. In 1993, Mauer was selected to officiate the NBA Europe Tour in London, England.

Airline ticket income investigation

In 2000, Mauer was convicted of a felony, three counts of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice for not reporting downgraded airline tickets as income to the Internal Revenue Service. Mauer failed to pay taxes on $26,500 of additional income over a three-year period. Mauer was one of two NBA referees who chose not to plea bargain his case believing that there was an injustice done against him. Mauer stated that he never intended to commit a criminal act and his accountants signed off on his tax returns and was not told of any issues. In April 2001, Mauer was sentenced to five months in jail, five months of home detention, three years of supervised release, and 800 hours of community service.cite web|title=Veteran umpire Clark fired by MLB |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/news/2001/06/22/clark_fired_st/|publisher=CNN Sports Illustrated|date=2001-06-22|accessdate=2007-06-09] At the conclusion of the trial, Mauer said, "I'm proud that I stood up for myself. At the same time, I'm relieved that it turned out this way. This is the first decent day I've had in a year and a half. This summer is going to be hard, serving my sentence. But I'm going to turn it into a positive thing. I'm going to help the kids, I'll get into shape."cite web|title=Talent not enough for Wallace, Blazers|url=http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2001/2001/0426/1186888.html|last=Hughes|first=Frank|publisher=ESPN.com|date=2001-05-30|accessdate=2007-06-09]

NBA Finals debut

Mauer was one of 12 referees selected to work the 2006 NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat, the first Finals of his career.cite web|title=Ken Mauer - Rookie Finals Referee |url=http://www.probasketballrefs.com/Default.aspx?tabid=250|publisher=National Basketball Referees Association|date=2006-07-14|accessdate=2007-06-09] Mauer's first game in the championship series was Game 3.

References

External links

* [http://www.probasketballrefs.com National Basketball Referees Association]