Ísak Ernir Kristinsson

Ísak Ernir started refereeing in the Icelandic national leagues at the age of sixteen and soon established himself as one of the top referees in the country.^[2] In 2017 he was selected to referee in the NBA Summer League.^[3][4] On 24 January 2018, he ejected a fan from a game between ÍR and Njarðvík's after the fan had leaned over him from the sidelines and called him a racist.^[5][6]

In August 2019, Ísak Ernir was named an official FIBA referee.^[7]

On 16 October 2019, Ísak was involved in a controversy with KR player Unnur Tara Jónsdóttir, who is a practicing medical doctor outside of basketball, after she requested permission to enter the court during a stoppage to attend to a teammate who had been suffered a serious leg injury after a hard landing moments before. Ísak denied her the permission and gave her a technical foul after she indicated that she would then ask one of the other referees at the game for permission instead.^[8] After the incident caused an uproar with fans, the Icelandic Basketball Association Referee Committee issued a statement where it stated that Ísak admitted that it had been a mistake on his behalf to deny Unnur permission to attend to her injured teammate and that the Committee agreed with that assessment.^[9]

In 2016, Ísak Ernir ran for Alþingi as a member of the Independence Party. In July 2018 he was appointed by Bjarni Benediktsson, the Financial Minister of Iceland and leader of the Independence Party, as chairman of Kadeco, a state owned redevelopment company that was created in 2006 to oversee the sales of buildings that belonged to the former US Naval Air Station in Keflavík.^[10][11] In 2019, it was revealed that Ísak was dating Bjarni's daughter.^[12][13][14]