But athletes die twice. One death is the inevitable departure from this realm. There is another one which precedes that, when the player is no longer in the prime and needs to walk away from the game. The spirit is willing but the body gets weaker and the player loses the physical qualities which were carefully honed through decades of practice.
But its not really death if you continue to live. There are ways to keep that connect with the game alive long after you cannot pursue it at a competitive level.
You don’t need to outrun the bear, you just need to outrun the guy you are running with. Competition is relative to whom you are up against. You can still continue to enjoy the game to its fullest if you can play it at some level and still remain closely associated with the highest level of competition at any level.
Walking in the Rakhi Sanga club, you can see a man who is on the other side of his physical prime and yet is holding his own with the best players of the club. If I didn’t know better I’d have pegged him as just another senior player who is coaching the kids, leading them through drills. Leading by example. I saw him take a treacherous spill and get back up, clean off the blood and join the players in five minutes with a smile, shrugging the pain away.
Atanu Bannerjee is one of the 19 FIBA certified referees in India and he can still hoop it up. He had an early start, at the age of 6 years he started playing basketball, he played sub junior and youth nationals for West Bengal, and both times the team came third. Later he also played senior for state level. “I used to be a jack of all trades, did all three, play, coach and officiate. I did a NIS course and became coach of the Bengal sub-jr team. I credit Aparna Ghosh who saw him in action, when I was in the twilight of my playing career, and she advised me to stick to one thing, my strong suite. She told me that ‘I’ve seen you in action and this is something that you can be among the best. Inspired by that I made a concentrated effort to focus on referring and it bore fruit.”
Atanu got his FIBA license in 2006. Five referees appeared in 2006 from India, all 5 cleared the exam.
Here are some of his officiating assignments:
2007 first international assignment, U-19 women ABC in Bangkok,, in his first ABC he officiated the final match (1st Indian basketball referee to officiate final in international level)
2007 South East Asian League in June
2007 FIBA U21 world championship Moscow
2008 FIBA Champions cup in Kuwait,
2009 ABC for Men in China,
2010 SEABA league in Singapore,
2011 South East Asian Games in Indonesia,
2012 West Asian league in Lebanon and Iran,
2012 Gulf club championship in Bahrain
2010 U-17 World Championship France, 1st Indian referee to officiate final match in world championship.
2011 U-19 World Championship Chile
South East Asian Gulf Championship 2012
You only live once. And he’s living his life the way he wants, associated with the game he loves and breathes.
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