Suyash Mehta interview: ‘Becoming a basketball referee was the toughest decision of my life’

As an NBA referee, Suyash Mehta is used to making split-second decisions even when confronted with overwhelming external pressures such as arenas filled with screaming partisan fans and future Hall of Fame superstars, who may disagree with his decisions. But the most significant decision Suyash has had to make in his life was also one that he agonised over many days: his decision to abandon a promising—and safe—career path to become a doctor, and instead becoming a basketball referee. “It was quite an un-traditional path,” admits Suyash, who this season became the first Indian-origin referee to officiate in the NBA. What complicated the decision further was that he came from an academic family: his father, who is from Punjab, pursued a career in medicine while his mother, from Uttar Pradesh, was a botanist. The couple moved to US in the 1980s to pursue the American Dream. Suyash and his three siblings were born in Baltimore. Given this backdrop, Suyash’s parents were surprised when he told them that he wanted to try his hands at becoming a basketball referee rather than a steady profession such as medicine. “After college I got the opportunity to try out as a referee in the NBA D League (as the G League was then called). It was toughest decision of life (to take up the opportunity to become a referee in the NBA D League). That same year I had taken the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test),” says Suyash. Suyash remembers the day he had to break his decision to his parents. Let alone attending a professional basketball game, they’d never experienced any live sports action in their life. “They were definitely hesitant in terms of me throwing away my life and career for something they didn’t really understand. “It was definitely not the easiest decision for myself or my parents. My parents are first generation immigrants from India and they didn’t really know what I was doing,” says Suyash. In the five years he spent being a referee in the NBA G League, his father would constantly ask him if he had given any thought to going back to being a doctor. “It was always at the forefront of my father’s mind. Every year that I was in the G League, my dad would remind me that I should still be considering medical school. And I would always tell him, give me one more year. The whole journey was a big test. My parents have now accepted that this is my career. They watch every single one of my games.” The turning point came in 2015, when he flew them to the Las Vegas Summer League to watch him officiating a game. The Summer League is organised at the same scale as NBA games and his parents had a courtside view to their son officiating a game. “That’s when they realised that that I wasn’t going to referee games between kids all my life, and that it could be a cool career,” says Suyash, who has refereed 26 NBA games so far this season—all of which his parents have watched unfailingly. While parental pressure no longer weighs on his shoulders, his gig requires him to step on the hardwood court with the best in the business in a cauldron of noise, where every move he makes is under scrutiny. “Officiating an NBA game is entirely different… it’s a different realm of players. You have got to be better. You’re on court with the best players in the world, you have to make right decisions,” he says. “Every night I go on the floor, I tell myself that I’m going to be the best person on the court. It’s funny to say that when you’re getting on the court with All-Star athletes.” Suyash points out that while his job is completely different than athletes, it requires the same amount of cardiovascular fitness and the ability to perform under pressure. Ask him about the jeers and boos his decisions attract from people in the stands and he says, “At this point, it has become second nature… the outside noise. We’re used to hearing the boos and the ‘referees suck’ jeers. It never really fazed me. Sometimes the boos from fans have even sharpened my focus. It allowed me to tell myself that there were thousands of people in this arena that think I am not good. That’s what made me want to be even better. That’s why I actually miss the fans this season.”