Eight of the most experienced and accomplished referees in the sport have been chosen by Euroleague Basketball to officiate at the most important event on the European club basketball calendar, the 2017 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Istanbul, Turkey from May 18 to 21.
After they called games across the continent throughout the longest season in EuroLeague history, the eight officials from as many different countries who are now going to bring their expertise to the Final Four are: Daniel Hierrezuelo of Spain, Damir Javor of Slovenia, Milivoje Jovcic of Serbia, Luigi Lamonica of Italy, Olegs Latisevs of Latvia, Robert Lottermoser of Germany, Fernando Rocha of Portugal and Boris Ryzhyk of Ukraine.
All eight have Final Four experience and all except one have officiated at the EuroLeague’s main event at least two times previously. Lamonica, Lottermoser and Ryzhyk will be calling the Final Four for the seventh time each and Latisevs for the sixth. Hierrezuelo and Jovcic are going to their fourth such event, Rocha his third and Javor his second. The combined experience of all eight referees going to Istanbul is 40 previous Final Fours, including 11 championship games divided among six of them.
Five of the seven referees headed to Istanbul have Olympic Games experience, as well, including four – Javor, Latisevs, Lottermoser and Ryzhyk – who were at the event last summer in Rio de Janeiro. Ryzhyk refereed the gold-medal game, as he did at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2014.
Source: EuroLeague.net
