FIBA Americas - Referees with Olympic memories

MAR DEL PLATA (FIBA Americas Championship) – It was Friday morning. The first game of the day between Cuba and Canada seemed to be quite easy to referee. It was a surprise for those who came early to the Islas Malvinas Stadium to see three first-class referees during Canada's 84-62 win: José Carrión (PUE), Alejandro Chiti (ARG) and Pablo Estévez (ARG).

The game, however, became aggressive and the trio had to stop some fight attempts and called 57 fouls. It ended to be a good thing to have three of the best referees in the world on hand.

The communication between the three - verbal and non-verbal - was first class.

"It’s our language and we all have the same gestures so people can understand which our call is," says Chiti about their use of gestures to communicate during games.

"It’s a key tool for us because many times we tell coaches and players that the next time they do something like they did, we will punish them. Sometimes we don’t need to talk and it’s enough to stop them by showing them the palm of the hand," adds Estévez

"There is a concept about preventing. It can be both verbally or by gestures. But we have to be careful as parents are with their kids. When we give them a warning, we undertake to penalise them if they repeat the action," Carrión concludes.

José Carrión, a mathematics teacher, has been in almost every big FIBA event in the last years, including the Bronze medal match in Beijing 2008.

As a Puerto Rican he is not allowed to referee the United States. Therefore, Carrión has missed the last Olympics and World Championships finals.

"Sometimes we can referee a game that is almost as important as a final, such as Argentina-Greece in the 2008 quarterfinals," said Carrión.

Pablo Estévez reached the peak of his career when he officiated the 2008 Olympics final.

"United States-Spain was considered one of the best games ever," said Estévez, who had to concentrate the double to perform well besides the environment.

"It was a big responsibility. Spain wanted to beat the Dream Team and 20.000 people wanted to see a great match. And there was I, with my whistle, trying to administrate a game the best possible way," Estévez adds.

Alejandro Chiti joined Estévez in Athens 2004 but both stayed out of the Gold Medal Game when Argentina beat the USA team in the semifinals and made it to the final.

"In the Gold Medal game in 2004, we were at the stadium with Chiti and every time Argentina scored we were elbowing each other but without moving a muscle of the face because we are part of the organization. We had mixed feelings," Estévez explains.

One thing is for sure though, none of the three are ready to forget their Olympic experiences.

"For referees, the Olympics is the best. We feel the same glory than athletes," Chiti concludes.

FIBA