The Day, New London, Conn., Mike DiMauro column [The Day, New London, Conn.]

Aug. 27--His career path began one day in the hallways of Ledyard High School, a conversation borne of happenstance with a man he never played for and a sport he wasn't playing.

(Just like you draw it up.)

"I knew I wasn't going to college. I had a job in a grocery store," Josh Tiven was saying Thursday night. "But Pete Vincent (Ledyard's boys' basketball coach at the time) comes up to me and says, 'what are you doing next year? I bet you'd make a good referee.'"

And sometime this winter, Pete Vincent is going to kick back and watch the NBA on television and see the byproduct of a conversation he's probably long since forgotten.

Josh Tiven is on his way.

He'll be an official NBA official for the 2010-11 season, 15 years and scores of leagues, cities, tournaments, travels, charges, blocks, technicals and games later.

"I got the call Aug. 10," Tiven said. "It was 10:30 in the morning and I had the Connecticut-Washington (WNBA) game later that night. I don't think I'll ever forget it."

Tiven, 32, remembers being inquisitive enough to talk basketball with Vincent back in his high school days. Vincent gave Tiven the number for Dave Boland, who was (and still is) the local officiating czar. Tiven took some classes, passed the test and got to know Boland and veteran official Bob Bernier, among others.

"I still remember Dave's number at the time was 779-REFS," Tiven said.

The winter after graduation, Josh Tiven's first game happened. Freshman basketball, Montville at Ledyard. The coaches: Kevin Willoughby (Ledyard) and Phil Orbe (Montville). Neither would be classified as terribly patient during athletic endeavors.

"I was clueless," Tiven said. "They must have wanted to kill me. But the next year, I went back for another Ledyard game and Kevin found me after the game and said, 'You've improved more in one year than any ref I've ever seen in my life.' That was my first vote of confidence."

It wasn't long before Boland saw some of the same things in Tiven that he did in his son, Matt, who is already in the NBA. Matt Boland was working the Continental Basketball Association, the NBA's old development league, when Tiven watched him in Hartford one night.

Now eastern Connecticut probably has more NBA officials per capita than any other region in the country.

"I remember thinking how physical the pro game was," Tiven said. "I asked Matt, 'How do you ? ' and he finished my sentence, (saying) 'know what to call?' The post was so physical. I was amazed at their judgment, knowing what to call and not what was marginal and soft."

Tiven, who was working his way up Eastern Board 8, started going to referee camps. Soon, he was doing high school varsity games, including his first Eastern Connecticut Conference final. It was 2004, Fitch at New London, overflow crowd at Conway Gym.

"It was like 32-30 after the first quarter. I've had pro games that didn't have that much scoring. I always thanked Dave for that chance," Tiven said. "A lot of assigners are big on senior guys. But Dave always said the best guys will do the big games, whether they're 25 or 50."

Tiven's break came that summer when, after officiating summer NBA camps cross the country, encountered veteran NBA referee Ronnie Nunn in the New York Pro-Am League. Nunn, who became the NBA supervisor of officials, liked Tiven and invited him to the NBA Summer League in Salt Lake City.

From there, Tiven officiated the NBA Development League and the WNBA, a frequent face at Mohegan Sun Arena for Sun games. He was good enough to get called for some NBA preseason games by 2008 and did six regular-season games last year. Several referees retired after last season, giving Tiven the chance that began at Ledyard 15 years earlier.

"I thank Pete Vincent when I see him for pushing me into officiating. My dad, too," Tiven said. "And my wife (Kara, a teacher at Tyl Middle School in Montville). She's a great mother and has never once in the five years I've been in the NBA program said the words, 'you're going on the road again?' Never once."

And so Josh Tiven learns his schedule soon. He figures about 11-14 games per month. He gets to quit his "real" job with a liquor distributor all for the right to travel a lot, get booed, cussed at and know that everyone in the stands can do the job better.

"It's like driving a car," Tiven said. "We all kind of know how the engine works, but we'd never think of telling the mechanic, 'you're doing it wrong.' Same with officiating. Everything thinks they can do it. But it's really hard."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

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