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At the moment, they have stopped being García Ortiz and Oyón Cauqui. Now they are José Ramón and Juande, overturned in their other profession, parked the ACB whistle although they miss even the controversies. "Even the coaches' protests!" , after finishing their day, they count police in San Fernando (Cádiz) and Badalona in these days of state of alarm, so intense and strange, in which it gives them to live unpublished things, but also to get excited and even to laugh.

"How can you forget the look of a child who just received a diploma to reward him because he has not left home for more than a month?" Explains García Ortiz, one of the most experienced referees in the League Endesa (more than 800 games), veteran of a thousand battles. Younger is Oyón, with whom he has shared an arbitration trio more than once - "two police referees, imagine the messing around of the players ..." -, who cannot stop thinking about the eyes and tears of that old woman at the same time. that the other day they sang "Happy Birthday" to him from the patrol car.

But also, of course, there were hard moments, those that will remain forever in the retina of these rare days. It is not easy to assimilate that the normal citizen can be suspected for the simple fact of going out. José Ramón had to ask many neighbors to stop censuring that father who was walking with his son. “I had ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder] and needed walks . People chastised him. We had to explain that it was not on a whim. It was not easy. At the beginning we were given many circumstances that did not appear in the BOE ».

Oyón, police in Badalona and referee ACB.EM

His empathy, forged in the streets and put to the test on so many courts, is more fundamental than ever. Both agree on the exemplary behavior of the majority and that, as in arbitration, "common sense" must be the basic rule. «The other day I had a very extreme case. I stopped a boy on a motorcycle and he told me that his mother, who had been cremated, had died. And that he came from seeing his father. I did not ask for the death certificate . Because of your experience and how you see that person, because you believe it. You have to have a left hand. And that is what basketball looks like, "admits Oyón, who has also had to take a career like those virals that circulate on social networks, especially every day he comes out of the country:" A boy who was riding a scooter, we saw something Weird, we stopped him and we fled. At the end we located him and he had 45 grams of hash on him ».

It is about unmasking the cheater, on the track and in life. “If they break the regulations, you have to be firm. And temperance, because everything has a limit. And if it is exceeded, many times the consequences are worse and for a simple infraction you end up in the police station. It happens a bit like with the coaches ' protests, ”says García Ortiz.

Although there are times that it is even difficult to hold back the laughter. More in San Fernando, land of permanent joke, tricks and excuses to write a book. "It is that people have a lot of art," says José Ramón, who had to deal with a citizen who was walking a dog ... stuffed animal . And what do you say ... You have to laugh. You just can't do anything else. The people who saw the scene were laughing with laughter ». Also half a smile escaped Oyón and his partner when they stopped two hairdressers who were coming to make curlers at home to a lady. «With all the gadgets, combs and others in the car ... And we who have been without cutting our hair for weeks. We were about to ask them for a favor, ”he jokes.

Two professions that receive more criticism than praise, always in the spotlight. Referees and police. That is why, although they long for the initial jump, the adrenaline of the competition, both García Ortiz and Oyón recognize themselves as the protagonists of a unique moment, of the "applause that they dedicate to us every day at eight". «The other afternoon they shouted at us from a balcony ' ¡Viva la Guardia Urbana! '. That had never happened to me before. You feel rewarded », adds the Barcelona player.

That fear on a court has long gone down in history, although there are always tense moments. The one of now is another fear, to be infected or to infect. "You try to push it away from your mind . " Because they are at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus. "We try to be scrupulous. But there are times when you are wrong, because everything is so new ... The other day, an elderly man fell on the street and was without a mask. The first intuitive intention is to go help him, to lift him up. And you do, of course. And then you think. He was not wearing a mask, I have exposed myself ... », García Ortiz reflects aloud, because the mistake, living with him is part of his professions. And when you fail, you better recognize it. The player appreciates it ».

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