White shares FIBA Europe experience

FIBA International Referee Gabriel White of the CNMI had his first taste of European basketball when he was tasked to officiate games in the FIBA Europe Under 20 B-Division Championships last month.

The FIBA Europe youth caging was held in Debrecen, Hungary, about a two-hour drive from the country’s capital, Budapest.

It ran from July 24 to Aug. 4 with White, who got his FIBA International Referee badge in October last year, being part of the pool of referees assigned to officiate games in the 20-nation tournament.

“FIBA Europe extends an invitation to FIBA Oceania and its FIBA referees as part of their ongoing ‘referee exchange’ opportunities between zones. This has been going on for several years and since Europe is made up of so many countries, there are always a lot of different FIBA Europe sanctioned tournaments. So, my superior, Mr. Steve Smith, the secretary general of FIBA Oceania, offered me a great opportunity to referee in Europe by nominating me to officiate in this year’s Under-18 European championship for men Division B tournament,” White said.

The tournament featured teams from Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovak Republic, Austria, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands, Montenegro, Finland, Romania, Georgia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Hungary, England, Norway, and Ireland.

Slovenia won the tournament, beating the Czech Republic in the finals, 68-60.

White left Saipan on July 22 and arrived on Debrecen two days after five connecting flights. From Saipan, he went to Guam then to Manila, Doha, Athens, and Budapest before reaching his final destination.

A day after arriving in Debrecen, he buckled down to work, officiating one game every day, and on some days had to be a stand-by referee for one or two more games.

“Officiating every day was a lot of work. I had all of my gear, which I prepared the night before, ready to go, hop on the bus with my colleagues to be transported to one of the two basketball venues where our games were to be played, and head straight to the referees locker room. Once there, I had to suit up for the game and then the crew chief conducted our referee pre-game conference to work out certain criteria we should focus on as we officiated our game,” White said.

Once the criteria were discussed and everyone was warmed up and ready to go, we officiated our games,” he added. “Everyone was very professional and took their job with much responsibility because we were all FIBA referees.”

White, who officiated games in the South Pacific Games and Micronesian Games, added officiating and basketball itself in Europe are very different from what we have in Oceania.

“Officiating in Europe is very different in several ways compared to FIBA Oceania. The standard of play and the level of competition are very high. The entire structure of basketball in Europe is much more organized, from each individual country’s basketball federations to the coaches and coaching staff, to even the very athletic, educated, and fundamentally sound basketball players,” said White.

“Officiating in this tournament was different from Oceania in terms of mechanics. Again, FIBA Oceania and FIBA Europe are in two different parts of the world with two different styles of officiating because of many factors: the amount of countries in each respective zone, the number of teams and players and even officials, the different cultures and habits, the different interpretations of rules and situations in games, and so on,” he added.

At the end of each game, White said their performances were evaluated.

“We were critiqued at the end of each game. Games were recorded on video and transferred onto DVD format for further viewing, evaluation and discussion by the commissioners, FIBA instructors and referee nominators, and the entire three-man crew during our daily morning referees meetings the next day,” White said.

Among the games he officiated, White remembers the Slovak Republic-Hungary the most.

“This game was very intense because Hungary knew that it needed to win to advance to the next round, and the entire gym was packed with rowdy, die-hard fans. The first call I made—a traveling violation—against Hungary’s center in the post got me hundreds of boos from the tough home crowd. In fact, this happened three times, even though all of my calls were correct,” White said.

“In the end, Slovak republic won the game, and like any home crowd, I saw, heard, and felt all of the emotions after the game. But, that’s part of the game—one team plays better and wins and the other loses—and I have been through worse. I just shrugged it all off knowing that I did the best job and I was very satisfied with my officiating with my fellow FIBA referees.”