Summary

In “T’d Up,” the central image is of Kobe, in uniform, on the floor of a basketball court. In the accompanying text, Kobe references how he had a good relationship with many referees even though he used to get a fair number of fouls. He describes attempting to build good working relationships with them. On the opposite page, beneath a central image of Kobe talking to a referee, there are two titles, “Refs Have a Difficult Job” and “Reading is Fundamental.” In the accompanying text, Kobe discusses the different ways in which the job of being a referee is challenging, including managing the high emotions of the players and their own feelings. He offers his belief that thinking of refs as human beings and treating them as such “worked to [his] benefit” (67). He also describes how he felt it was important to...