EZEQUIEL RE
Apr 4, 2025
“We broke all barriers to make people happy.”
Ruben Rodríguez Lamas' life is closely linked to sports. He started playing basketball at a very young age, when he was 11 years old in Infantiles at Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires, where he was promoted to First Division. Then he graduated as a lawyer at the age of 24 and his father was already in Maxi Básquet. At that time he was linked to a magazine that dealt with the history of Argentine basketball. It was in 1974 and he edited it for 6 years. In 1985 (he was 35 years old) the possibility of making Master Games sports in Argentina appeared, and basketball was included.
From there came a meteoric international career in leadership.
“As a leader I was in the Porteña Federation, then the Argentine Federation and the Argentine Basketball Confederation. In Maxi's board of directors since I was 35 years old, in the CAB and then Famba. Later on, an organization destined to set up all Maxi sports at international level. In 1991 several Maxi Associations were created in the World, among them FIMBA and in the beginning I was a delegate. From 1997 secretary until 2003 and then president. I have always been involved in basketball at different levels. Since 1997 there was the possibility of creating the women's basketball and with the invitation to make a FAMBA tournament in Jujuy, the first championship was held and I told the delegates that they had to create a women's commission within FAMBA. The authorities were left and with that it started to work until 2002 when the FFEMAR was set up. Those were the beginnings of all that”.
THE MAXI, A WHOLE HISTORY
The coup d'état against Perón in 1955 had consequences in sports, among them the prohibition for elite athletes to participate in events. There were marches and countermarches until the CAB accepted in 1965 the creation of the Basketball Veterans Union of the Argentine Republic.
Rodríguez Lamas could spend hours talking passionately about the Maxi. “In 1985, for the first time in history, a Masters all-sports tournament was organized. It was in Toronto. We went and listened. Then there were various situations that we were able to overcome to finally bring the first World Tournament in 1991 with all disciplines. There were 22 sports, Maxi Federations were set up all over the world for that purpose. We worked from 1986 to 1991. It was played in Buenos Aires, Santiago del Estero and Bariloche.
”8,000 LETTERS WERE SENT ”.
Far from today's real-time technology, in those years communication was a bit difficult. ”8,000 letters were sent to Federations or Associations of the World. I was accepted by Australia, Italy, Estonia, Russia, France, Yugoslavia, Germany. From America Canada, United States, and many more. Each one contributing their sports. We started working for 5 years, and we managed to have teams in all categories. We separated them every 5 years of age. We had our fears, but we overcame everything. We even changed rules according to the doctors' explanation. Many of them, like in basketball (4 quarters of 10 minutes), are applied today”.
After that event, FIMBA (International Maxibasketball Federation) did a tremendous job that makes it the Third World Federation and with players from 30 years old to even 85 years old.
“We broke all the barriers so that people can be happy,” concludes Rodríguez Lamas.
