LET’S be honest here, where would sport be without the umpires, officials, referees?

Throughout my time involved in football it was always agreed that the referee had the final word. Yes they do make mistakes, they are only human, however it is fair to say that in most cases it is just that, a mistake, an error of judgement, with no malicious intent.

So, when an athlete is given the power to have a referee removed from a game, it’s a sad state of affairs and one that has to be questioned.

This is exactly what happened at a recent sponsored Summer Championships basketball game in Las Vegas, when a female umpire was removed from the game, by the demands of a player.

LaVar Ball who is described in Wikipedia as a “media personality” demanded that a female referee be removed from the court after she had issued him with technical fault which resulted in Ball threatening to take his team off the court.

What makes this even more unsavoury is the suggestion the Adidas, who were sponsors of the match, had put pressure on the refereeing body prior to the event, to appoint officials who would avoid calling technical fouls against LaVar Ball because of his drawing power.

When media stars and sponsors start to dictate the terms of sport, integrity will be a thing of the past and sportsmanship will become an obsolete word.

His after-game response to camera was to say that “It’s not about me hating that lady or something”.

“She just got caught in a bad place: messing with me. She good. She probably a great ref for the women’s. She’s probably a great ref. But this men’s stuff, it’s a difference between women’s basketball and men’s basketball.”

There are too many differing voices here for the truth ever to become a reality and it leaves many people, myself included, despairing for the future of sport, particularly for those young women who are at the front line of ignorant abuse, just solely because of their gender.

One bright light is that the company who provide officials for the tournament have decided that they will no longer be available to support the event in the future and further to that, Adidas have issued a statement regretting their actions and advising that they are looking into the matter to make sure standards for sportsmanship, equality and fair play are much more stringently met by all their representatives in the future.

BASKETBALL is certainly on the up in Scotland not only in terms of their national squads, but in the work that is happening on the ground from the local clubs.

REACT Basketball, which covers Renfrew, Erskine and Inverclyde, and who I am proud to say that I am an ambassador for, held a full day of events last Saturday in Erskine, focusing on women and girls at all age-groups.

The day culminated with a showcase match between Lady Rocks and West Lothian Wolves, with the Rocks taking the accolades at the end of the night. However, cheesy as it may sound, women in sport was definitely the winner.

The support at every game throughout the day was impressive and the atmosphere on the night was electric. The players themselves embodied good sportsmanship and took time to meet and speak with all the young fans after the game.

There is so much good work carried out at local level and REACT are a case in point.

Respect, Enable, Achieve, Community, Togetherness, the words that make up REACT, are all great traits for community sport to encompass.

Led by Coach Josh Anderson, the ethos of the club cannot be faulted and the volunteers and staff who work tirelessly promoting the game deserve all the commendations that come their way.

This type of community resource is duplicated throughout Scotland and without it, the opportunities for so many young people in Scotland to get involved in sport, would be few and far between.

However, support is still needed to ensure that we don’t lose this resource, so why not offer your help to your local club and if you are a local business remember a little bit of investment from you will go a long way.