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Curtis Blair (left) and fellow referee Monty McCutchen work an NBA preseason game last year. | Courtesy of Curtis Blair

The phone rang about 3:30 p.m. Monday at Curtis Blair's Richmond home.

The former Patrick Henry High School basketball standout saw the 212 area code on caller ID. He answered, assuming it was a telemarketer.

It wasn't.

"How long do you want to be a referee?" NBA Senior Vice President Ron Johnson asked Blair, 37.

"Well, for the next 20 to 30 years," the Roanoke native replied.

"Welcome to the NBA," Johnson said.

Dreams do come true.

For eight years, after finishing his days as a college, professional and overseas player, Blair has run up and down basketball courts as an official.

He suited up as a referee for the first time in 2000, refereeing a high school junior varsity girls' basketball game in Richmond. Then he moved on to college and National Basketball Association developmental league games, the training ground for NBA refs.

Finally, the call he'd been waiting for came, putting him in the pinnacle of hard-court referees.

"My heart just stopped," Blair said last week. "This is a journey that has been going on for years. Finally, to get what you wanted for so long. It just came."

Blair will report Sept. 20 to a meeting in Jersey City, N.J., where the NBA's 60 or so referees will review rules, procedures and changes and watch video from last year.

"It's pretty intense," Blair said.

Anyone who has worked hard toward a goal knows how satisfying it is to finally achieve it. That's a message worth repeating every once in a while as encouragement to others to keep pressing on, especially when they can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Blair's story, however, is about far more than individual achievement. It's also about a community bearing witness to one man's perseverance and about the commitment of parents to their child's dream.

Along with friends and family who followed Blair's playing career, fans of the disbanded Roanoke Dazzle can share in Blair's achievement. He broke into the NBA ranks officiating National Basketball Development League games here.

Always avid supporters of their son during his playing days, Blair's parents, Curtis Sr. and Diane, traveled to games he officiated. His father recalled one time they were in the stands at Virginia Military Institute.

Someone made a comment -- he doesn't remember what was said -- and Curtis Sr. turned and politely told the spectator that the ref was his son.

"They just looked at me and smiled and said, 'I didn't know.' " the father said.

The first call Blair made when he hung up from Johnson was to his mother at her office.

She wept.

"How could you not?" she said, recalling her reaction. "You talk about calling Jesus. I said it 50 million times. I said, 'Jesus. Oh Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.'

"As a mother, when you see that your child is doing what you have raised him to do, plus you're just so proud of any accomplishment they have landed, you can just let it out by tears."

Blair graduated from Patrick Henry in 1988 and played at the University of Richmond, where he received a degree in criminal justice in 1992. He had a stint with the Houston Rockets and played professionally for five years in leagues in Australia, Turkey and Austria.

After his playing days were over, Blair returned to Richmond. The married father of two joined Wachovia nearly 10 years ago. The financial specialist has been on leave since last month.

In 1999, a Richmond-area referee suggested Blair think about officiating. He didn't do it at first. A year later, he began officiating high school, recreation league and Amateur Athletic Union basketball games.

In 2001, Blair attended a camp with about 50 or 60 other referees at Virginia Tech. It was sponsored by an NBA ref, and the 6-foot-3 Blair caught NBA officials' eyes. Blair speculated it was probably because of his size -- he lifted weights religiously then -- and because of his playing background.

The next year, he was invited to the professional league's pre-draft camp in which refs officiate games between NBA hopefuls. That led to a referee job with the NBDL and annual invitations to the NBA's summer camp for rookie players and free agents.

'I didn't give up'

Over the years, Blair improved his craft and received pointers such as positioning, so he could have the best vantage point of the action on the floor.

Every year, Blair said, the NBA referee pool has two or three openings because of retirement or injuries. (He would not talk about former NBA ref Tim Donaghy, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for using inside information to predict the winners of games.)

Blair said he felt he was real close last year to being called up. It didn't happen.

"I didn't give up," Blair said. "I was disappointed and then persevered. If you have a dream, you've got to keep at it. There's going to be some bumps in the road. You can't lose focus of what you really want to do."

When Johnson's call came last week, it was a very short conversation. Blair said he will receive his game schedule once a month and will officiate about 60 to 65 games a season. The salary range for NBA referees is $100,000 to $300,000 a year.

The preseason and regular season stretch from October to April. Playoffs end in June. Blair said refs officiating the playoffs have at least five years' experience.

A bigger stage

The NBA won't be totally new territory for Blair. He has officiated NBA preseason games for the past two years.

As a new ref, he will be required to officiate a few NBDL games a year in addition to his NBA duties.

Blair said his demeanor is low key. He tunes out hecklers and does his job.

He recounted an NBDL game last year in Utah in which the hometown team was winning, and its fans were loving the refs. In the last quarter, the opponent came back and won. The fans turned on the officiating crew.

As the refs walked off the court through the tunnel, the fans ran toward the edge of the bleachers overhead, cursing the refs below.

Even though Blair is close to the game he has played since he was about 7 and has a bird's eye view of its superstars, his job is not to watch the game as a fan. His job is to keep the game fair.

"You can't focus on the individual player," Blair said.

The biggest difference in moving to the professional ranks full time is "players that are bigger, stronger, faster. Every game is watched on TV pretty much. It's bigger stakes," he said.

And a bigger stage -- for which Blair began preparing years ago.

"I'm 37 years old. Don't ever give up. I started at a girls' JV game in Richmond. That's a long way to now being in the NBA."