Roberto Begnis he refereed the last match of his career yesterday during the friendly match in Trento between Italy and Georgia. A few seconds from the end, coach Gianmarco Pozzecco’s timeout to pay homage to the whistler born in 1967, who has a career of 701 appearances behind him. In 2013, elected best referee in Serie A, Begnis spoke to Corriere della Sera after the standing ovation he received at the Il T Quotidiano Arena: «How excited was I from one to ten? I would say… eleven because in that moment I understood why I should consider myself lucky. I am passionate about basketball and for 24 years I have had the opportunity to experience it not on TV or at most in the stands, but on the court, directly and a few centimeters from my long nose”, says Begnis.
On Pozzecco’s gesture. «He did something incredible, I thank him from the bottom of my heart. I believe it was a certificate of esteem and credibility towards me: what remains from that time out is that we wanted to recognize what is behind the institutional figure of the race director. In other words: behind a referee there is always a person, in this case Roberto Begnis. In sport there is role play, everyone has a role: but respect for everyone is fundamental.”
Insults received in career. «Look, I can say that the basketball public is on average much superior to certain situations. I would also like to point out that our sport is played in facilities without physical barriers: from the high stands to the parterres, anyone, if they wanted, could make incursions. However, it doesn’t happen because there is a lot of awareness. As for insults, no, I have never received any even if the referee in first instance is seen as a policeman who gives fines. When a controversial situation arose no one ever said to me “Begnis, fuck…”, if anything the phrase was: “Come on, Bobo…”. Yes, Bobo, the simplified version of my name. Can the referee make a mistake? Certain. And sometimes it’s even necessary to apologize. The important thing is that good faith is recognised: from coaches and players I have always received messages based on dialogue, not acrimony.”
