A Day in the Life of a NBA Referee from NBA TV

And no, this has nothing to do with Tim Donaghy. For all the coaches out there, I encourage you to spend at least 1 month refereeing, it will change your whole perspective on the game. I never really had a true appreciation of refereeing until I became one for a season a few years ago. What I found most eye-opening was the incredible pressure I was under. Being a coach, its always easy to "referee" from the sidelines, having the benefit of being able to reflect for 2-3 seconds before reacting, seeing what the ref calls, how your players react, how the fans react. As a ref, you blow the whistle milliseconds after the play. You don't have 2-3 seconds to reflect, you must make the right call right away. Everyone is waiting for you to make the call, then reacting to it. It's tough, it's a lot of pressure, all the time.

Anyways, I really liked this segment from NBA TV, probably one of their best all season. Refs really are perfectionists, they want to get the call right. They care about the integrity of the game. And they are professionals. I felt the same way as the refs in the video, if a player or coach came up to me respectfully, I was always more than willing to talk. I think it's a myth that referees hold grudges, I never really had time, people don't realize that when you become a referee, you usually ref a couple of games a night, I barely remembered the scores of the games, let alone coaches or players. Anways, enjoy....