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(crowd cheering)
(whistle blowing)
- [Narrator] It's always easy to blame the referee.
But what's it like to be that official?
- My name is Zach Zarba and I'm a 15 year NBA referee.
The pressure is underestimated, you know,
it's taken for granted sometimes.
It takes a lot to be able to function and exist
in a pressure-filled environment.
And you have to be calm.
- [Narrator] Zach has had his fair share of court time.
He played DIII basketball for SUNY New Paltz.
- So I knew as soon as my career was over that I had
to do something else and find something else I love.
And my father was a baseball local,
a baseball umpire in Brooklyn.
And he did high school and college and he kind of gave me
the idea to try officiating.
- [Narrator] How did Zach become one of the NBA's
65 referees?
It's a long road to reach that level.
- You start from the bottom.
You start from CYO four, five year olds, six year olds.
You work your way up, you do high school basketball.
You do a little bit of college.
I did a lot of work in the New York City Pro-Am Leagues,
and then the D League.
- [Narrator] If you're good enough, you go to training camp.
If that goes well, you might be recruited to the G League.
Only those at the top of the G League get accepted
as NBA referees.
- You have to be young.
You have to be in shape, you have to be able to run
up and down with the best athletes in the world.
You have stay light.
The lighter you are, the less wear and tear on your legs,
on your knees, on your feet.
That's gonna give you a longer career.
- [Narrator] Clearly staying in shape is key.
How does Zach stay trim?
- For me personally, it's an hour of cardio a day.
It's core work.
It's abs.
It's a lot of weight work on the legs to protect the knees.
- [Narrator] Referees have to keep more than just
their bodies in shape.
- I do a lot of meditation, during the day before the game
and stuff like that.
Just in order to find a calm place in order to have clarity
because we're making decisions that likely affect
people's careers, people's jobs.
Someone wins, someone loses and you just want the utmost
clarity and peace in a charged environment.
- [Narrator] On game day, Zach and his fellow officials
will meet around 11 AM to catch up.
They'll head to the arena 90 minutes before tip-off
to run through their pre-game routine.
- The interaction with players is an ongoing art.
Some nights are easier than others
but communication is the key.
Communication and listening skills are huge.
And at the end of the day we may agree to disagree
on some subjects but the respect comes both ways.
We're not more lenient with the stars.
I would say the star players actually are disadvantaged
more than anyone else.
If you're going to concede that we make mistakes,
which we do, the mistakes we make are gonna be
on the people who have the ball in their hand
75% of the time which in this case is the star players.
They hold the ball 75% of the time.
They put pressure on the defense and pressure
on the officials.
And, if and when mistakes are made,
they're usually made with them.
- [Narrator] On top of the stress of the game,
refs are on the road a ton.
Sometimes for up to 10 days at a time.
- The travel is difficult.
For the more veteran guys it's 24, 25 nights
gone from your family a month.
It's basically eight months on and then four months off
because all that time gone during the winter
you have to reconnect with your family.
And so we're home during the summer.
We do some training stuff with the League.
But that's our time to reconnect with our family
and loved ones.
(lively classical music)