[theboys]

My son's team is playing in a tournament this week called "Tournament of Americas". Several teams from Latin and South America have joined the usual Atlanta area AAU suspects. Last night, while waiting for my son's game to start I watched two Spanish-speaking teams play each other. (Sorry, I couldn't determine the country from their uniforms.)

Toward the end of the game, which was closely contested throughout, A's coach requested, and was granted, a time-out. The table told the ref that the time-out was A's last, so the ref went over to the coach to let him know. It became immediately obvious that neither spoke anything but their native language. Ultimately, the ref told someone who looked to be an interpreter of sorts. So, of course, less than a game minute later, A's coach called another time-out. The refs then tried to explain that they were calling a technical on team A, which took a few minutes and a lot of confused gesturing and frustrated looks on everyone's part.

On a related note, the refs suffered further during my son's team's game. Early in the game they called lane violations on the opponent - a Venzuelan team - every time free throws were shot. I guess FIBA rules must allow entry into the lane after the release. Ultimately, because the game was a blow-out, they just gave up and quit calling the violation.