American referees

Press, 5 August 1981, Page 17

American referees

Neutral referees especially “imported” from the United States will be one of the main features of the best of three series.

The New Zealand Basketball Federation and its Australian counterpart have agreed that the referees are necessary to prevent any accusations of partisan refereeing.

The N.Z.B.F.'s executive officer, Mr Joe McLeod, said no secret had been made of the fact that New Zealand teams that have played Australia previously had felt they were unfairly treated by referees.

The two American re

ferees who are due in Christchurch today are Norman Borucki and Ron Omori. They will stay in Christchurch for the test series before travelling to Wellington and Auckland to conduct refereeing clinics.

Both are top referees, having controlled international basketball. Omori is the most experienced of the two — he refereed the final of the Eighth World Basketbail championships in Manila in 1978.

In both the 1978 World Championship qualifying series in New Zealand and the Olympic qualifying series in Australia in 1979, the New

Zealanders felt they could have iared better if the referees had been neutral. For those two series each country provided one of the two referees needed for each match. In the second test in Australia in 1979 the New Zealand team had the services of its top player, Stan Hill, for onlyjhree minutes. The Australian referee had awarded five fouls against Hill in that time and he was forced to watch the rest of the game from the sideline.

Mr McLeod said he felt neutral referees would help the New Zealand side a 101. The N.Z.B.F. will share the estimated $4OOO cost of bringing the two referees to

this country with the Australian Basketball Federation.

However, it will pick up the full tab for expenses incurred after the series is completed. Mr -McLeod said players and spectators alike would notice a different approach to the games’ from the two officials.

Messrs Borucki and Omori would be more “professional” in their approach and would have no pressures on them from either side.

“Their being here will at least stop any accusations of unfair or biased refereeing,” Mr McLeod said. - ...