Iron man -----Dick Bavetta

Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:56 am

At 66, Bavetta to break record for most games refereed. (Y)

Bavetta will work his 2,135th consecutive game Wednesday night when the Knicks play the Nets at the Meadowlands, breaking Jake O'Donnell's record for most career games worked by an NBA official. The NBA only counts regular-season games, so Bavetta's total is actually much higher with his 214 postseason assignments, including 23 NBA Finals games.

"My secret is wearing five pairs of socks," Bavetta told ESPN.com. "I just believe in taking care of my feet."

During an Indiana-New York game in the late '90s, Jalen Rose accidentally struck him in the face and broke his nose. "It looked like a pancake," Bavetta recalled.

Bavetta also became the first referee to call off a game because of unsafe playing conditions when condensation from the hockey ice at the old Boston Garden caused pools of water to form on the parquet floor.

Bavetta is aware of what people have said about him over the years, and it's a shot at his integrity when he hears himself impugned. One of the comments that particularly stung came when Tim Hardaway of the Heat called him "Knick" Bavetta following Miami's controversial Game 7 loss to New York in the 2000 playoffs, a game that swung on a questionable call by one of Bavetta's partners, Bennett Salvatore.

Bavetta remembers being lauded by the league office for his work in that game, and he accepted Hardaway's apology the following season when Hardaway came up to him during a game in Milwaukee and expressed his regrets for what he had said.

If he makes it to the arena on time for tip-off Wednesday night, he can put Notch No. 2,135 on his whistle -- an accomplishment no other referee, or almost anyone else in the history of professional sports, can match.