The Tribune

IT has been a busy time this past few weeks for Bahamian FIBA basketball referee Christian Wilmore, who has been on a worldwind tour officiating in four international tournaments.

Wilmore's latest trip was to Minsk, Belarus, July 21-29 where he officiated at the FIBA Under-17 Women's Basketball World Cup. That came after he officiated at the FIBA Under-18 Americas Championships 2018 in St Catharines, Canada.

Prior to that, he officiated at the two World Cup Qualifiers between Puerto Rico and Cuba and Colombia versus Brazil. At the end of the month, Wilmore is expected to make a trip to Puerto Rico with the Bahamas women's national team for the Centrobasket.

"It's been a lot of learning, a lot of hard work, but I also got a chance to travel round the world and meet people from all kinds of players from Russia, Ukraine and share customs and cultures," he said.

"It's bigger than basketball. It's been a great experience, but the learning curve is so high, once you start to officiate at the highest level. There's always things to learn. That is why I love officiating."

When he got started almost a decade ago, Wilmore said he never envisioned he would have performed at so many international events as he has been afforded so far. "I dreamt of one day working a World Cup because I always wanted to be the best that I could be," Wilmore said. "But six years in if someone had told me that I would have worked three World Cups, I would have said impossible.

"I was the first Bahamian to ever go so just to get the first one was big. Then to go again for the third time, it was just like a dream come through. Right now i'm the only English speaking person in the Caribbean to officiate consistency at the high level year in and year out, so it's a major privilege and opportunity for me."

Wilmore, now 24, said he's looking at advancing to the top tier of officiating where he will perform at the senior men's World Cup, which is in Tokyo, Japan next year.

"I might get it as well as I might not, but if not, then I will be shooting for the 2020 Olympic Games," Wilmore proclaimed. "That's really what I really have my eyes set on, breaking the top tier officiating for the men's division."

Having had his performances critiqued, Wilmore said he definitely have to work on his "contact criteria" where you have to "decide on what fouls need to be called. As easy as it may sound to the lay person, it's a difficult thing.

"When you are referring at the top level with the best players in the world, the game is so quick and diverse that you have a split second to determine if that contact is a foul that needs to be called. People who don't referee may not understand that every contact is not a foul and some fouls don't need to be called."

As the game of basketball is an entertaining one, Wimore said the referees have a responsibility to avoid as many interruptions as possible, while at the same time, maintaining law and order.

"Becoming consistent on a fast paced game is very difficult and it takes a lot of practice," he insisted. "So I'm trying my best to work on that."

As a boy growing up in a man's game, Wilmore said he's taken the approach that if he can referee in the Bahamas, he can referee anywhere, just as one can do with their driving.

"So I'm not intimidated," said the 5-feet, 6-inches referee. "I started referring when I spent many of my formative years referring in Kemp Road, Englerston, Fox Hill and Pinewood parks in the summer in conditions when the weather was not conducive for a 14-year-old.

"So I think that has prepared me very well to referee in arenas where there is a lot more protection from the Police and securities and the guys are professionals. So the chances of me being intimated is very slight."

Having said that, Wilmore said he have not been threatened by any players internationally for making the wrong call or not making one at all when they considered it should have been one.

But Wilmore said he clearly remembered how a fan in Panama in 2016 when he officiated at the Centro Basket for men, had some choice words for him in the semifinal game between Panama and Mexico.

"I made a call, which was a bang bang play and when I went over to my new position on the sideline, a fan stood up in his seat," Wilmore recalled. "There was a barrier there, but he leaned over it and tried to intimidate me as he spoke in Spanish, so I wasn't sure what he was saying/

"That was the only time that I can remember someone tried to intimidate me. But as far as the coaches and players are concerned, I haven't had that problem. At the FIBA level, people are really respectful in the sense that if you are wearing a FIBA barge on the court, regardless of how young you are, you must know what you are doing."

As he so aptly puts it: "first impression is definitely a lasting impression" for me.

When he's not running up and down the court blowing his whistle, the 2011 high school graduate is in the classroom at his alma mater at St Augustine's College where he's been teaching biology for the past two years after spending a year at St John's College.

For those Bahamian referees who wish to follow him, Wilmore said he would encourage them to "develop a professional attitude towards officiating and making things culturally that we take for granted.

"The lesson for me from I started officiating is that I tried to take it seriously because a lot of the people whom I officiate with on the international scene are professional referees, who have officiating at the highest level in the sport.

"We have the potential, but it will take more than that to officiate at the highest level. It's the way we talk and the way we carry ourselves because anyone could call the game. What separates me and the other referees is the professional attitude, the fitness level, the intangibles that we really need to improve."

Wilmore became the youngest person to officiate at a FIBA World Cup when he participated at the Under-17 FIBA World Cup for Women in the Czech Republic.

Although he's been the pacesetter for the past few years, Wilmore said he envision seeing other Bahamian referees joining him at the FIBA level. He said they just have to be ready when the opportunity presents itself.