How good are you?

"I'm so good, if I were a [fill the blank: player, referee], I'd be in the NBA by now."

Well, you probably haven't heard it put quite that bluntly before, but the egos surrounding us on the officiating circuit — including players and officials — might not be far from it were we to crawl inside the brains of those around us and somehow examine players'/referees' real attitudes. A certain level of aggressiveness in a ref's ego is worthwhile, if for no other reason than it keeps him or her hungry enough to keep trying, hoping — doing the things necessary to advance up the ladder.

Comparing ourselves to players has only minimal benefit; it is apples and oranges, if you will. Plus, we usually outlast the players for the amount of time we officiate compared to the years that players play basketball. What we need to do is compare ourselves to our officiating peers and understand the process of climbing the ladder. It's tough to avoid the wrong perspective about how easy (or hard) it is.

Continued...