Tommy Nunez - A Really Great Guy
15/September/2009
All of these qualities were evident at the ABOA Fall Officials Clinic in Calgary. Tommy was able to keep over 100 officials laughing and engaged during his presentations. Tommy might be a former NBA official but his talks reached out to officials at all levels. As he says, basketball officiating is all about the basics and that applies at every level. When he wasn't in front of the audience, he was chatting with everyone, making friends with all.
During the recent ABOA Fall Clinic, I had the opportunity to interview Tommy Nunez. Most of what I learned is available on Tommy's website at http://www.tommynunezfoundation.com/. If you take a look at the site, you can read all about the Tommy Nunez Foundation. It says:
"Nuñez calls it giving something back. But others see him as a classic role model of what can be achieved despite a shaky start. When he isn’t officiating or working with the league in some other capacity, he’s speaking to kids from coast to coast, organizing summer sports camps, youth programs or directing his National Hispanic Basketball tournament. Giving something back is a full time job for Tommy Nuñez, but he hasn’t done it without recognition. He is included in volume one of the book “Hispanic Heroes of the U.S.A.” and has been named to the Laredo Latin American Sports Hall of Fame. He shrugs and says simply: “I’m just somebody from their background that they can listen to and believe in” he says. “I was a nobody all of my life, it’s nice to be a somebody.”
Click here to see three one-minute videos from my interview with Tommy.
Also check this story on Tommy in the Edmonton Sun.
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