IN SHORT:
Gatis Saliņš refereed 10 matches in the World Cup final tournament, including the final match for gold.
As a referee, Saliņš saw greater prospects for himself in basketball than as a player.
Officiating matches has tempered Salinas and also helped to improve communication skills outside the field.
In order to officiate basketball games, you must always maintain a good physical condition.
Saliņš is counting on the always possible wave of criticism of his performance and is able to live with it.
During the World Cup, Saliņš sympathized with the Latvian national team in several matches.
In the men’s World Cup finals, Saliņš refereed 10 games, including overseeing the final match, the culmination of the entire tournament, where Germany defeated Serbia together with his colleagues from Mexico and Puerto Rico. Latvian referees were noticed the most in the quarter-final game between Canada and Slovenia, where Saliņš issued a technical note to Lukas Dončič and practically sent the Slovenian basketball star to the locker room.
Gatis Saliņš on his experience as a basketball referee and his impressions of the World Cup final tournament
Zane Eniņa: Please tell us about yourself – where are you from? What do you do for a living and what is your education?
Gatis Saliņš: I am from Riga, born in Riga. I lived the first 15-16 years of my life in Olaine, where I also started my basketball career and where I got to judge a basketball game for the first time. During high school, we moved to Mārupe, I studied at Mārupe high school and continued my basketball career at “Rīdzenes” sports school.
Is refereeing basketball games your day job? Bread work?
It is definitely not a piece of cake. As we always joke with colleagues, this is a paid hobby. Speaking of which, I work in insurance with corporate clients. In my spare time, I officiate basketball games.
How does one become a basketball referee? Is there a basketball refereeing school or something?
Currently, there are various schools of basketball referees in Liepāja, as well as various groups, such mini-schools in Riga as well, but if we look at the past, when I started my career as a basketball referee, we always had new basketball leagues, where I myself also played. Accordingly, very often we had to judge the games ourselves – one of the players. Some have more, some have less. Maybe the coach sees that someone is getting better – then they are given more opportunities to judge. Coming out of this, choices can be made in the future: do I continue as a basketball referee or as a player.
Going back to the past… When we moved to Mārupi at the age of 16 and started playing at the “Rīdzenes” sports school, I continued to play, but at the same time I also refereed, because
around the age of 20-22, I realized that I would not become a professional player and that there might be opportunities to rise higher in basketball refereeing.
Because these opportunities – to serve games of different levels – were certainly more in Riga than outside Riga.
Why wouldn’t you become a professional basketball player?
Considering my achievements and experience as a player, I realized that I might not have the opportunity to play at a high level. Accordingly, I saw that maybe I should try my luck and luck in refereeing basketball, which is even a very good opportunity to learn both the game of basketball itself and to learn various skills that can also be useful in everyday life.
What are these skills?
As an example, I can cite communication with people, which definitely helps both in everyday communication with friends and family, and maybe also at work, communicating with clients. Being able to listen more and understand people. The next step could definitely be the resolution of some conflicts or tense situations, which we certainly have a lot of on the basketball court and which definitely helps us to perceive various more acute situations in everyday life more calmly and coolly.
Gatis Saliņš
Photo: Zane Eniņa/Latvijas Radio
Not only basketball, but any sports referee is always in the crossfire – he is never good for everyone, here the spectators are dissatisfied, here the players. Is there any way to temper it?
You can become hardened against it, and I believe that I have grown a thicker skin over the years as I have gained experience. That’s why I try to perceive many situations both on the field and in life more calmly, more pragmatically, and try to find a solution right away. In my opinion, every problem has a solution, which I immediately try to somehow analyze and understand in my head in order to solve it.
Do you sleep well after judging?
If we look at maybe the last three, four years, I sleep better, but in 2017, when I got the international basketball referee category, I could say that I slept worse in the first two years, because there was constant stress and adrenaline after the games. I thought about the situations – what I could have done better, what maybe didn’t happen… Accordingly, it wasn’t so easy to fall asleep, but I believe that in recent years – yes, as I accumulate experience, I sleep better.
Are there any techniques, hobbies, maybe meditation that help overcome stress?
Watching the game right after the game definitely doesn’t help, as the games usually end late at night. Then there is dinner and then game analysis with our instructor. If we still take time to watch the whole game, then it is already night – one, two, three, and then the sleep is not really of high quality. That’s why
I try to analyze the game the next day, when the emotions have subsided.
I read a book or watch a series. It maybe helps not to think about basketball at the moment, and it certainly helps to fall asleep and sleep better. This then helps you wake up with a fresher mind and move on.
Do you analyze every game?
Yes, I analyze every game because there are many things and nuances to work on. Of course we make mistakes every game. And then in each game we can understand if we have improved some of our moves or decisions or not.
In principle, just like athletes…
Yes, basically like athletes, because what I also like about refereeing basketball is that no two games are the same. Every game is different. There can be different players’ culture, different behavior, so the situations are many and varied. Coming out of it, we can accumulate our baggage of experience with each next game and then maybe try to manage it better in future games.
Must also be in good physical shape?
Yes, at the international level, we have physical training coaches, we also have to wear so-called heart rate belts for each match, where our pulse is monitored – we follow each match. In each situation, we look at how the body reacts, what our heart rate is in that particular situation, in order to understand whether we are in good or bad physical shape and how we can improve it in future situations.
And how do you improve?
The first rule is to be in very good physical shape, so that the heart rate is not too high already at the standard level, which immediately helps to think more fluidly and easily. Because it is very important for us, if we compare with the players, then they have the opportunity to change, rest during the game.
In our case, of course, the load is not as great as the players, but we have to run the whole game from the beginning to the end.
Especially at the end, our mind must be the most important, we cannot reach such a threshold of fatigue that we cannot lead the game to the end with quality. Because very often when there are similar games, the last minutes are the most important. Therefore, it is important that we are in good shape, that we feel good, that our pulse is not high and that we are able to make the right decisions.
How do you train, how can you achieve your good heart rate?
Training programs are drawn up for us or we use the services of various personal trainers ourselves. If we talk about the training itself, it is both physical training, speed and endurance training, and simple running training. Also flexibility training. Because it can happen that there are such short sprints, several in a row, several changes of direction. Especially in those, the pulse always jumps up and down, so it is important that we can withstand the load for a long period of time during the entire game.
For us, readiness is usually assessed either before the start of the season or in the middle of the season.
Or if we are talking about such big championships, then before them we have to run tests about four, five times. We have to film them ourselves, and then the coach looks at what condition we are in at that moment. Maybe you need to work harder somewhere in training or everything is fine.
We made it to the big championships – you just refereed the final tournament in the World Cup, but how many games did you manage to work in total and how do you rate your performance?
It was my first World Cup in men’s basketball, and I think it turned out great, because I managed to serve the final game, where there were definitely a lot of positive and pleasant emotions. In total, I played in the tournament… Yes, ten games were played. Seven were in the group stages, including the first round of the play-offs, and then there were the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. So it ended up being ten games, yes.
Gatis Saliņš (right) in the World Cup game
Photo: FIBA/From the personal archive of Gata Salinas
After that, it was heard on social media and elsewhere that the referees were not officiating properly, and that some of them had never seen any real basketball stars in real life. How would you comment on that?
After judging for several years now, I have realized that there are many people, there are many opinions, and I certainly cannot and do not want to influence every person’s opinion. My motto is rather that I go to every next game and my goal is to play every next game in the best quality possible. Let the strongest team win and let there be as few criticisms from the teams as possible. But it is clear that there will always be
especially in big tournaments where the hype is high, there will be many, many positive and negative comments. This is what I accept and can live with.
After this kind of work in the World Cup – does it raise you in any referee ranking or what does it mean to you among other referees?
I think that among other judges, it already means a lot that I was at the World Cup. It was a great pleasure that we were three Latvians. In total, we were 44 judges from all over the world, and Latvia was represented by three. If we talk about the other colleagues, there were three more each from the USA and Puerto Rico, so I believe that Latvia is, in a sense, a superpower of judges, and it was a great pleasure that there were three of us.
Not just a basketball powerhouse now, but a refereeing powerhouse?
Yes, hopefully. We may not have a common rating, who is first, who is second, who is third, but if we are talking about such big tournaments, then we are evaluated there after each game separately. After that, appointments are made for each subsequent game. In our case, the most important thing is that we are appointed to such a high-stakes tournament. Being in such a tournament, maybe someone does better, maybe someone doesn’t do so well, that’s why appointments are made when you leave it.
Do you already know what your next assignment will be?
If we are talking about such big championships, then no, but the basketball season will start soon – both in Latvia and internationally, so I will go to Turkey on September 24, where there will be a basketball Champions League qualifying tournament. Until October 1. This is also my next international assignment. Until then, there will probably also be a game here in Latvia in our Latvian-Estonian basketball league, but we’ll see.
You worked at the World Cup, refereed 10 games, but did you have time and opportunity to notice and appreciate Latvia’s success and also feel joy?
Yes, I am definitely very happy and proud of the Latvian national team, because I have always been and will be a patriot of my country and I am very happy about that.
It was a double joy that the Latvian national team overcame the group tournament and they had the opportunity to go to Manila for the playoffs, because I was already there and also stayed until the end.
I am also happy that I will have the opportunity to see them play in Manila. I personally managed to see the game against Italy and against Lithuania. I didn’t succeed against Germany, because I had to judge the next game myself, so I didn’t spend those 7-8 hours in the hall, I had to prepare for my game.
Or met our featured players? Maybe you know one of them?
Yes, I met, most of them are known and known, some maybe better, some not so well… We also managed to talk, because with some of the players who did not play in the particular championship, we sat in the same stand behind the basket and together we supported and rejoiced at the success.
An athlete’s career is short, that’s for sure, but is a referee’s job for life?
This is a good question. I think there is a big difference if you compare the career of a player and a referee. I am currently 36 years old. If I were a professional basketball player, it would mean that my career would come to an end, but in the context of the refereeing profession, a career only really begins. We have the ability to judge until the age of 50; fulfilling the relevant criteria, it is possible to do so up to the age of 52-54. So… let’s see. I think that in the next 10-15 years I would definitely like to judge, but then we will see where that road leads.
