Taking care of business During the major basketball referees’ clinic I attended in the Canary Islands this Summer, the top basketball referee instructor Alan Richardson, during the course of one of his interesting and relevant lectures, made special reference to the saying, ‘take care of business before business takes care of you’. “Taking care of business” basically refers to the importance of a referee to manage a game professionally. In a way, it literally means treating the game like it were a complete office (adapted from referee.com), with, for example, in basketball’s case, the referee as the CEO and the umpire as the top assistant or taking football as an example, the referee as the CEO and the previously called linesmen (assistant referees today) as assistants. In the past years I have been taught on many occasions that a professionally managed game must be conducted both firmly and fairly as well as without anger. The most important duties of the game managers are making sure that games are played in a safe environment and that both teams are afforded an equal opportunity to win the game. More simply, the referees must maintain safety and fairness throughout the game. Unfortunately, a number of referees I meet, even locally, would like the club administrators, coaches and players to like them and even do their utmost to please the latter. In all honesty, I have to admit that being likeable works favorably in most of life’s endeavors. However (with a super capital ‘H’) there are exceptions. Police officers, teachers, judges, soldiers and even sport referees are among the exceptions. In such positions, I personally believe with certainty, that respect is much more important than being likable. For example, do you want a police officer who never arrests anyone, a judge who endlessly forestalls to make a decision, a teacher who allows rowdiness and disorder in the classroom, a soldier who is timid or a referee who does not take care of business and is hesitant and not ready to take split-second decisions? I want to make it clear at this point that I am not advocating that a referee should be an absolute dictator who rules with an iron fist and frequently ejects any dissenters from the game. However (keeping on the same point), on the extreme other end of the spectrum are the timid character types who turn a deaf ear to all criticism in the hope that they would not be reported to their association. Nobody can negate the truth but I have met some timid types of referees who have officiated, sometimes, for several years and who revel and boast (not being aware that they are boasting of negative personal characteristics), for example, that they have never (or it has been a long time) ejected and/or sent off anyone from a game. Unfortunately, despite their obvious timid character, the consistent shortage of referees makes it difficult (although I beg to differ with this as I deem it better to have less quantity and more quality) to remove them completely from the game. When I encounter such referees, I am left totally perplexed and literally perplexed, especially when I think about a possibility of seeing the same referee at some crunch moment late in the season when his call or no-call could decide a championship. Along the years I experienced such partners (since there are 2 (soon, this same season, also 3 referees in local basketball) and I also had some bad experiences because when your partner freezes and is literally scared to take a clutch decision, you have a limited choice. Either let go or else start to take over responsibility of even your partner’s zones. I have to admit also that in such circumstances the referees’ dressing room would not be a nice place after the game as I would make it very clear that if my colleague was trying to please certain people, he definitely did not please me! The timid type referees generally do not make decisions in awkward moments such as the use of profanity toward the referees, showing up on a referee, players or coaches trying to incite spectators to demonstrate against the referees and even players, coaches or team personnel questioning the referee’s integrity. Worse still, no decisions are taken also in situations where there is obvious threatening of the referee himself or intentional contact and clear disrespect in addressing the referee. I have just cited some clear examples of an unsporting manner but I could mention a lot more. Is it possible, I sometimes ask, that a referee (especially at a serious level of competition) never faces any of these situations? In the past, I have heard certain excuses such as “the manual states to walk away from confrontations” or “do not insist on the last word”. My advice to young referees is always the same. These tactics may sometimes work but my limited experience has taught me that they frequently do not in the real world of refereeing. My fellow colleague, try to take care of business. We are not there to please and be popular. We are there to accomplish a professional task and thus, let us mean business!