On a night late in March, minutes after the Jazz thrashed the Knicks in New York City, three referees huddled around the television back in their locker room, kitty corner to the court at Madison Square Garden, and watched the screen. Studied it. Asked for rewinds and slow-motion reruns and for stops.



For 48 minutes they had been the ones controlling traffic on the floor, policing and overseeing two teams — 10 athletes at a time in impeccable shape, with world-class hops and quick-twitch speed. The NBA, when you’re watching from a courtside seat, is hard to follow all at once. There’s less time to pick up nuances, to spot trends, to see, well, everything. On the floor, it is even quicker.



After the very first quarter he refereed in the league, Mark Wunderlich could barely make sense of it. How are you doing, Ed Rush, his compatriot on the floor that night, asked.



“I don’t know,” Wunderlich remembers saying.