Costas Rigas chosen for FIBA Hall of Fame!

Euroleague Basketball is proud to announce that its longtime director of referees, Costas Rigas, has been selected to the 2013 class of the FIBA Hall of Fame. First as a game referee and subsequently as Euroleague Basketball’s officiating director for the last 13 years, Mr. Rigas is recognized among the worldwide leaders in his profession. During a 15-year international refereeing career from 1977 to 1992, Mr. Rigas worked some of the most prestigious games in world basketball, including 10 Euroleague, Olympic Games, World Championships and Korac Cup finals.

Since 2000, as Euroleague Basketball director of referees, he has helped shaped the progress of game officiating into the 21st century. In 2008, Mr. Rigas was named among the 50 greatest contributors from the first half-century of European club basketball at the Final Four in Madrid. He is also a current member of the FIBA technical commission, which oversees the application of game rules, organizes clinics for referee training and certification, and otherwise advises the FIBA Central Board on technical matters.

"It is a great honor and a big pleasure to reach something that I could only dream of when I started in basketball 50 years ago," Mr. Rigas said. "My thanks goes to my family, and especially my wife, who looked after and educated our children in the best way during my long absences from home due to refereeing duties. This recognition by FIBA of the years I worked with fairness and honesty to contribute to the development of basketball worldwide is the brightest day of my career."

Mr. Rigas, from Greece, is one of 12 members of the 2013 FIBA Hall of Fame class. Also honored are players Jean-Jacques Conceiçao of Angola, Teresa Edwards and David Robinson and of the United States, Andrew Gaze of Australia, Paula Gonçalves of Brazil and Zoran Slavnic of Serbia. From the coaching ranks, the late Cesare Rubini of Italy is joined by Pat Summitt of the U.S. and the late John "Jack" Donohue of Canada. Mr. Rigas will be inducted alongside fellow technical official Valentin Lazarov of Bulgaria and contributor Aldo Vitale of Italy, as well. Their enshrinement will be at the House of Basketball, FIBA's headquarters in Mies, Switzerland, on June 19.

Source: Euroleague.net