Here I am in the Hyatt Regency's Holland Ballroom attending 2003 NBA Officials Preseason Meeting, the annual training camp where the NBA's 59 game officials get together for five days for a "training camp" that consists of physicals, tests, video breakdown and seminars on rule interpretations, game situations, court coverage and game discipline.

And right now, I feel like I'm being grilled in some '40s detective movie. We've been split into three groups to talk about "Game Analysis," which is basically "You Make the Call," except I'm here with guys who hold a Ph.D in NBA rules. Me, I just hope to get my B.S. through it.

Bennett Salvatore, Ted Barnhardt and Sean Corbin huddle to make the correct call. D. Clarke Evans NBAE/Getty Images

A member of the media is in each group. We media are here to observe how the refs live. Now, we've been asked to participate. This should be easy, I've never made a bad call in my life.

Before us sits a sheet of paper with five questions, each with five subsets. Question No. 3 is mine. And my NBA Official Rules 2003-04 book must stay shut.

"How many subs can enter the game during …?"

My group had discussed all five subsets and I felt ready when I was asked to give the correct answers to the assembled in the ballroom. I breezed through the first two and then -- gulp -- froze at the third.

C. 5 second throw-in violation in team's backcourt

"Uh..." I stammered.

One of the veteran officials whispered the answer to me.

"Remember the box," came the voice from behind.

If there were a box there, I wanted to crawl into it. But if I were a substitute wanting in the game after the five-second call, I would had to have been waiting in the substitution box. If not, I would have had to wait until the next dead ball. Of course, there's an exception if the game clock were under two minutes in each period or overtime, then "a reasonable amount of time will be allowed for a substitution."

This was slightly unnerving not to mention complicated. If the NBA wanted to let others know what it was like to walk a mile in an NBA ref's Reeboks, well they went easy on us. After all, I stumbled in front of a total of 20 people.

"Now, imagine what it would be like if there were 20,000 people waiting for you to make call?" one official pointed out later.

That's why the NBA holds this training camp. On this day this Officials Training Camp featured no physical activity, but the officials using team work, performed plenty of mental gymnastics as a ref's brain is the tool he uses the most.

Ronnie Nunn, an 18-year NBA veteran, who was named Director of Officials in the offseason, noted the importance of having outsiders getting an inside scoop as to how a team of officials works together.

"The most important thing about refereeing we need to make people know what's actually going on," Nunn said. "You don't come to games to look at referees. But, as the game goes on, you recognize that the referee is an integral part of the game.

"The more information people know about what referees do, how our game is officiated, what are the standards. The more we do that, the more we get rid of some of the myths, some of the voodoo that people think occur in a game and do not." The Nunn and Ed T. Rush, who was named Director of Officiating Programs after five seasons Director of Officials, criss-cross the country meeting with teams, coaches and media to explain what makes an NBA ref tick.

"The media is so important because they're the link to information and the proper information should go out," Nunn said. "By the same token, if we are wrong about something, that it's clearly understood. We don't have to have a gray area. The least amount of gray area in calls and situations the better the public is informed the better it is for everybody."

It's also better for the officials themselves, who see that people have taken a better understanding of what they do. And it's very involved, whether it's watching the first half on DVD at halftime to review their work to filing reports after the game on a secure website after the game to making flight reservations on the same system, the officials would like you to know they're job isn't 130 minutes of running up and down the floor, then it's out the door.

No, much of what the refs do at training camp involves team work. Where some would see a referees' huddle as indecisiveness, the officials see it as trying to get every call correct.

"You saw some exchange," Rush said about a role playing exercise between officials. "We're really trying to encourage people when they leave here that they're learning curve is dependent on how they react and respond to each other."

Rush knows how far the officials have come in their collective training. As one who spent 31-years in the NBA, he knows they've come a long way.

"Our training was to just sit around and talk about situation, if you're talking training, there was no training," Rush said. "Today, there's a whole preparation to come to a position where you'd be hired into the league. Now, we have people who come into the league and are prepared to succeed."

As for my succeeding as a ref, well, let's just say I'm nowhere near the big time. Moments after my five-second violation, Nunn ran plays on an overhead projection. After one play was over, he called my name and asked for my call.

"Could you run that back, please?" I said.

"Sure, I'll replay it," Nunn said with a smile on his face. "Just like in real life."

Yep, a lot to learn.