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Ego is important. Everyone has one, it's just a matter of how strong it is and how it manifests itself.
I do believe you have to have a "healthy" ego to officiate. You have to be confident in what you do to an extent that you aren't easily influenced by the outside distractions in a ballgame. You must carry yourself with confidence. You must believe you know the rules (it's always helpful if you actually do). When you make a ruling you must believe 100% it's correct.
The difference, IMO, between a healthy ego and an "overly healthy" ego, is how you handle the times you aren't correct. An official at the right level of ego knows he's not going to get every judgement call correct. He'll be strong enough to admit to a coach now and then that he may have missed one. He won't be afraid to correct an error if he can, but he also won't create more bad calls to "make up" for an error which can't be corrected.
He'll also be more than willing to accept feedback and input on his game. He'll officiate with a 100% correct attitude, then afterwards look at everything that happened and figure out where he wasn't 100% correct and what he can do to get better.
The difference between healthy ego and arrogance isn't that great in how a game is called, it's in how an official communicates and what happens off the court that really makes a difference.
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