the last guest in The Crossoverthe podcast that sits Joe Arlauckas face to face with a great Euroleague star, is the referee Luigi Lamonica, who hung up the whistle after the last Final Four in Belgrade. In total, he officiated in ten four-way finals and also in the Olympic and European Games for national teams.
Lamonica has told Arlauckas how she embarked on arbitration: “My father was on the board of the team where I played and in a match they forgot to ask the local federation for a referee. So when I got to the game, and they said, oh, we didn’t call the ref. My father came over, gave me the whistle and said, ‘Let’s go!’ The next day, Lamonica was invited to enroll in the next referee course. She chose to try it and we already know his career.
Lamonica spent 13 seasons working youth ranks in Italy before receiving international referee status. “I enjoyed refereeing so much that I continued because I loved it. There are many things around refereeing, it’s not just the 40 minutes of the game.” A time of growth in which he made lifelong friends and made his first trips by train, ferry and plane, always to referee: “I was so happy to have this job, that I would have stayed in the second or third division in Italy, without any problem.”.
Lamonica, what now he is the director of the committee of Italian referees, explained to Arlauckas in detail how referees prepare for matches, what they should never do and what they look for in key situations. The former player, who was never very friendly with the referees, showed a very empathetic vision with what Lamonica told him. “I am literally fascinated by this conversation, which I have never had with other referees. You’ve made me realize how important it is to have some basketball experience.” Arlauckas told him, who added: “I think if players could sit down and listen to this and understand exactly what you’re doing, their reactions would be different.”.
The day Larkin was whistled for a foul that wasn’t
Lamonica also spoke of a poor call during her final months, when she incorrectly called a fifth personal foul on Shane Larkin. (Anadolu Efes) in extra time of a match against Barcelona last season (93-95 for the Catalans on December 3, 2021) and how this affected your decision to retire. “After that decision, something inside of me snapped and I thought that I had probably started to lose something.Lamonica confessed. “If you don’t see it, you don’t have to blow the whistle. But I thought I saw something. And this was going around in my brain”.
The podcast, available on all the usual platforms, also discussed how technology has changed the way of refereeingabout the most tense moments in the Italian referee’s career and how to handle mistakes.