Wood Blows Whistle on Playing Career : Basketball: His game remains the same but now he is working toward an NBA career as an official.

LONG BEACH — On the surface, the scene at the Pyramid was a familiar one: Former Cal State Fullerton and NBA player Leon Wood running warm-up laps on the basketball floor--getting ready for a summer pro league game.

But there were obvious differences.

Instead of a team jersey with a number, he wore a gray pullover with blue trim. And a whistle hung from his neck.

During this session of summer games, Wood hoped to take steps toward another career change. He wants to go from player and a former assistant coach at Fullerton to referee. Instead of creating fouls, he wants to call them.

“I’m definitely going at this full speed,” Wood said after a recent game. “I’m pretty much on a mission now to get this done. This is not an experiment, which some people thought it was at the beginning.

“So far it’s exciting. The only thing--originally we were supposed to be in Utah for their pro summer league. But the NBA lockout brought us here. When I heard I was coming [to California], the thing going through my mind was I had just played in the summer league last summer--I had played in it for 10 years--and all of a sudden I’m going to be refereeing guys I played against and with. Against coaches I played for. This was going to be the biggest challenge.”

When not refereeing games, Wood attended classroom sessions supervised by Darell Garretson, chief of the NBA’s officiating staff.

Garretson said he and the staff have been pleased with what they have seen and he is considering Wood for some assignments in the Continental Basketball Assn. this fall.

“I think he’s passed all the tests here,” Garretson said. “There are two positives for Leon. Each night he progresses, showing excellent judgment, and he has decided his playing days are over. We have seen nothing bad this summer.”

But that doesn’t mean Wood will be working in the NBA soon. Normally a candidate will come to the NBA camp three to four years before he is hired, Garretson said. “We have a backlog, but no pecking order. We evaluate and re-evaluate non-NBA staff officials every year. But we don’t have to look at someone long to decide if he can work for us.

“We look for someone athletic--a person who can run the floor. I also talk with them, to find out what they would like to do. I want someone who is successful outside officiating. I don’t want them sitting around, waiting for the NBA phone to ring.”

Wood, considered the best player produced by Cal State Fullerton, set school career records in points (1,876 points) and assists (744). He also is Fullerton’s single-season record-holder in points (719), assists (319) and scoring average (24.0).

Now 33, Wood said he thought of officiating even while still a pro--although he wished his career, which lasted six seasons and was hampered by injuries, had turned out differently.

“It was a little difficult in the beginning, being a No. 1 draft pick,” Wood said. “But as I look back now, I can say I did accomplish what I wanted--be in the NBA, my No. 1 priority, and play in the [1984] Olympics. So even though I didn’t become an all-star, I did get to the main show. Some things you have no control over.

“Even when I was in the NBA and not playing that much I studied the game. I didn’t just sit there; I not only studied from a player’s point of view, but tried to see what the coaches were seeing and what the referees were seeing. Sometimes when a player would come out he’d grumble, ‘I can’t believe [the ref] made that call.’ I would tell him, ‘Trust me, that was the right call. You did walk.’ ”

His NBA playing career ended in 1990, but Wood continued playing in the CBA and European pro leagues. He joined the Fullerton staff for the 1991-92 season but still had a desire to play and joined a team in France. In December, though, Wood reconsidered his career path.

“When I had to make the decision between the two I thought coaching would always be there--at 30, 40, 50, whenever I decided to coach,” Wood said. “Refereeing--I had to decide from the standpoint I was young, healthy, and had the legs to go up and down the court. If I tried to wait until my 40s, it could be a little difficult; I had no idea physically how I’d be 10 years from now if I just started.”

So Wood found work wherever he could. He officiated in recreational leagues, boys and girls high school games in Orange County, pro-am leagues in Los Angeles. He was spotted by NBA scouts at a referee camp in Texas. Garretson said it was “a step we’d never seen an ex-player take before.”

Starting from the bottom is what Wood says he needed to do to achieve his dream.

“These were some of the dues I’ve had to pay,” he said. “It was something I had to do on my own because when I started it was the end of December, and it was too late to get into anything major. So I did this for experience--to see if I like this. Bottom line is, I like the game of basketball.”

At least one ex-player who has seen Wood referee thinks he can make it. Former NBA star Magic Johnson said “he’s doing it the right way.

“Because he played, when he makes it the players will respect him. They’ll understand the calls. Those are the guys you want in big games. The best refs are the ones you can talk to.”

Wood said he received a couple early tests to his authority, but for the most part he has not been verbally blasted by summer league players and coaches.

“Some of the tricks they try to get away with they see I’m calling,” Wood said. “They would say, ‘You used to do that,’ and I tell them, ‘That’s why I made the call. I know what those tricks are.’ So from that standpoint, guys are starting to respect me a little bit.”

Wood also thinks his feel for the game gives him another edge.

“I’m using that anticipation to my advantage. Some of the offensive sets that are out there are ones I’m used to seeing. When I see it’s the two-man game, big man and small man, I know something’s going to happen at that end. If I see the ball being rotated and the clock is going down, I know the ball is going up. Now I don’t anticipate a foul, or something like that; but as far as where the play is getting ready to go, that’s what I’m using to my advantage.”

Garretson is surprised that only one former NBA player has become a working referee. Bernie Fryer, who played with the Kansas City Kings, is in his 14th year.

The pay is not player scale but it is good--starting at $68,000 and topping out at $179,000. (An official working the playoffs through the NBA finals can earn an additional $40,000.)

“We have a standing, if unwritten, policy that we will take any ex-player who wants to be a referee, and keep him three to four summers as long as they show progress,” Garretson said. “[Knick Coach] Don Nelson came to a camp. Lucius Allen spent three summers here, Ernie DiGregorio two summers. If a player is interested we feel we owe it to them.”

(Wood is not the only potential breakthrough. For the first time, two women were invited to work the summer games--Dee Kantner from Charlotte, N.C., and Violet Palmer, a Los Angeles native. Both are Division I officials who worked this year’s women’s Final Four.)

Wood said his wife, Tia, and family are more supportive of this endeavor than when he played in Europe.

And, if nothing else, officiating summer leagues here has convinced Wood he is doing the right thing.

“I needed to see how I would react refereeing against my friends,” Wood said. “Now I have to sit with the referees. I can’t go and chit-chat. They tell me, ‘Leon, you are no longer a player now. You must separate yourself from that.’ Officials, players and coaches are not supposed to be so-called buddy-buddy. So that has been a challenge for me. It hasn’t been easy, but I would say for the most part I’ve passed.”