NBA Referees Bracing For Lockout

[duncan228]

NBA referees bracing for lockout (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-referees-lockout&prov=ap&type=lgns)
By Brian Mahoney

NBA referees are prepared to be locked out for the start of the season after negotiations with the league toward a new contract broke down this week.

Referees spokesman Lamell McMorris said on Thursday that officials have already made numerous concessions, but the league is still demanding significant cuts.

ESPN.com reported that talks ended after commissioner David Stern abruptly halted a negotiating session Tuesday. McMorris accused Stern of being rude and not negotiating in good faith.

The league’s first preseason game is scheduled for Oct. 1 at Utah.

*********************

The ESPN piece.

Replacement Refs For NBA?

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134584

[jazzypimp]

Maybe now they can get some refs not trained by lakers management

[Muser]

Maybe now they can get some refs not sucking LeBrons dick


Fixed.

[Red Hawk #21]

Maybe now Joe Johnson can finally get a call

[jazzypimp]

Maybe now D-whistle will have to earn his points

[Cry Havoc]

Maybe now Parker will actually shoot free throws when he's chopped by 3 players on one play and goes flying 10 feet across the court.

[spursfan09]

Maybe now they won't be as old as a dinosaur.

[IronMexican]

With no NBA games, maybe I'll actually get laid.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Why would scab refs be any less in Stern's pocket? Seems to me they'd be even more likely to walk any supposed company line with superstar calls.

[Culburn369]

Why would scab refs be any less in Stern's pocket? Seems to me they'd be even more likely to walk any supposed company line with superstar calls.

Thanks for the assurance, exile. I'm not as worried now.

[jack sommerset]

The ones they got have suck.......Time for a change. Hire all new ones and start training them now.

[Summers]

I'm way more pissed about this than I should be. I know we talk a lot of shit about the refs, but, really, they're pretty decent at their job. Remember how awful the officiating was in the Olympics? You want guys like that reffing the NBA? And they want a lockout because Stern was "rude"? I know bashing Stern is just what we do, but, seriously, the guy never raises his voice or flexes his facial muscles. It's so hard for me to imagine him being the problem at the negotiating table; and regardless, it pisses me off to think the whole season might be fucked because he hurt their feelings.

[baseline bum]

Stern better fix this mess. This is shaping up to be an incredible season with LA, Boston, San Antonio, and Cleveland all going for broke to win a title and then Denver coming back intact and Orlando returning with a strong team. It doesn't need to be ruined with rookie refs that are going to be intimidated by home crowds and star players.

[duncan228]

Updated.

NBA referees bracing for lockout (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-referees-lockout&prov=ap&type=lgns)
By Brian Mahoney

NBA referees are prepared to be locked out for the start of the season after negotiations with the league on a new contract broke down this week when David Stern ended the latest bargaining session.

No further talks are scheduled—and when they do resume, it’ll be without the commissioner.

Referees spokesman Lamell McMorris accused Stern of acting childish and not negotiating in good faith, so Stern removed himself from the process.

Stern said Thursday he told McMorris that, “In fact if it was going to get personal—which apparently he’s decided to make it by calling news media and leveling a series of inaccurate allegations—that I would absent myself from the negotiations, which I have.”

“Hopefully we’ll make a deal with the referees, or we won’t, but it won’t be on the basis of personality, it’ll be on the basis of economics,” Stern added.

The league’s contract with its referees expired on Sept. 1, and McMorris said the sides have basically agreed on salary issues for a new two-year deal. He said the league wanted to freeze salaries for the first year with a 1 percent increase in year two.

The officials were willing to go along with that, McMorris said, because of the economic difficulties the league is facing, but the NBA was still asking for significant reductions in the referees’ budget.

“We’ve laid $2.5 million back on the table,” McMorris said. “Some things we have to be able to go back to our group and to say that we collectively bargained in good faith. Our goal is not to take all the hits, we can’t do that.”

ESPN.com first reported that talks ended after Stern abruptly halted Tuesday’s session at league headquarters. Stern said the officials reneged on something previously agreed upon, but McMorris was critical of the way the commissioner handled things.

“The problem is, David Stern does not negotiate. He tells you what’s going to happen and then when you don’t do it, and do something differently, he whines and acts like a child,” McMorris said. “That’s not how you negotiate. Not with adults.”

Stern said the league would be well represented even without him, but didn’t leave much hope that a resolution would come soon.

“On the basis of the last series of proposals, it doesn’t appear that there’s any point at this time to further negotiations, but obviously it still remains our goal to start this season with our existing referees working,” Stern said.

Referees are due to open their training camp on Sept. 20, and the league’s first preseason game is scheduled for Oct. 1 at Utah. Without a deal soon, the NBA will begin the season with replacement officials for the first time since 1995.

The league is seeking cuts in areas such as the referees’ benefits, travel budget and their per diems, which Stern said would “bring their numbers in line with other league employees.”

McMorris feels there is more to it, with the league possibly trying to rid itself of older referees or perhaps send a strong message to the players, whose collective bargaining agreement with the NBA expires after the 2011 season.

He also said the NBA gave a combined $100,000 in raises, which Stern could not confirm, to the three men who were hired to oversee the referees operations department in the league office following the betting scandal involving former official Tim Donaghy.

Already, the referees will miss next week’s two-day seminar with league coaches, and McMorris said the officials will meet again sometime after that.

Officials from the NBA Development League could end up calling NBA games as the league scrambles for replacements. Stern denied McMorris’ charge that backup refs were being called even before Tuesday’s meeting ended, while McMorris said the league had even called a referee it fired three years ago to see if he would be available.

Even with Stern not involved, McMorris said his side won’t come to New York for further talks.

“If the league wants to start up talks again, our door is open, so we’d gladly look forward to meeting them in Washington D.C. for the next meeting,” McMorris said. “You can’t be disrespectful and childlike and ask us, when you’re already cutting our wages and expenses, to use our hard-earned money to come and you’re kicking us out of meetings.”

[duncan228]

Latest from ESPN.

Refs expecting Oct. 1 lockout (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4463154)
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

The lead negotiator and spokesman for NBA referees announced Thursday that the referees expect to be locked out when exhibition play starts Oct. 1 after contract negotiations with the league broke down this week.

Lamell McMorris, in a press release, also asserts that the NBA has begun to contact replacement referees to work in the preseason and perhaps the early part of the regular season.

NBA lead negotiator Rick Buchanan, in response, said Thursday that talks collapsed because the referees' union changed its mind after agreeing to accept the league's proposals on retirement benefits. Buchanan added that "all the union has offered to us is minimal concessions that are neither consistent with economic reality nor with the information it is currently distributing to the media."

The statements were issued in the wake of an ESPN.com report Tuesday, when the latest negotiating session between the referees and league executives came to an abrupt end in New York, significantly increasing the possibility that replacement refs will be needed in the NBA for the first time since the 1995-96 season.

"We understand that everyone in the country is facing tough times, but the NBA is continuing to make money, sign large marketing and television contracts and expand their business internationally," McMorris said. "We have attempted to negotiate in good faith and give substantial cuts to get the referees back to work."

In Thursday's editions of the New York Times, McMorris said he was "frustrated and disappointed at the unprofessional and disrespectful manner in which Mr. Stern ended what was a productive negotiating session" on Tuesday. McMorris also echoed the growing belief that Stern is taking a hard line with referees "to send a message to the players," whose own labor contract with the NBA expires during the 2010-11 season.

In a separate interview with the Times, Stern told the newspaper that negotiations with the referees have "nothing to do with the player negotiations" and insisted that Tuesday's talks, as Buchanan said, collapsed because McMorris' union reneged on previously agreed-upon facets of a new contract.

Said Buchanan on Thursday: "Everyone at the NBA has a great deal of respect and admiration for our referees. With that said, the actions and statements of their union over the past 24 hours have been extremely disappointing. Personal attacks and inaccurate assertions in the media are hardly constructive methods of bridging differences or ultimately making a new agreement.

"It is and has always been our goal to reach a new collective bargaining agreement with the referees that is fair and appropriate, and we remain hopeful this can still be accomplished prior to the start of what promises to be another exciting NBA season."

The NBA's contract with its referees expired Sept. 1, but no further talks are scheduled between the sides with only 20 days before the league's Oct. 1 exhibition opener (Denver at Utah).

Asked if the dispute can be resolved before the season starts, Stern told the Times: "Right now, I'm not optimistic."

ESPN.com reported Aug. 25 that the league is seeking an across-the-board reduction of 10 percent to a referee budget that costs an estimated $32 million. In his statement Thursday, McMorris said that the referees have proposed a reduction to the budget of $2.5 million, which includes freezing salaries for the 2009-10 season in addition to reducing travel costs by 15 percent and per diem by 7 percent.

"In our proposal, we sought reductions in the NBA's referee program expenses consistent with cuts we have made in other areas of our business -- all in response to the current economic climate," Buchanan said. "At the same time, we sought to soften the impact of these changes on the referees by preserving their existing levels of salary and playoff compensation and agreeing to a two-year term that would provide them with another opportunity to negotiate in the near future if the economy improves."

One source with knowledge of the league's thinking has openly questioned the referees' leverage, telling ESPN.com last month and reiterating this week that he expects the refs -- in this depressed economy -- to ultimately accept the additional reduction from $2.5 million to $3.2 million when faced with the reality of not working.

The referees have scheduled a meeting in Chicago next week to discuss their next steps, with their annual training camp in New Jersey -- scheduled to start Sept. 20 -- on hold.

It appears more likely that the league will be setting up a training camp for replacement referees for the first time since the 1995-96 season, when refs were locked out for more than two months before reaching an agreement to return to work in December 1995.

Two current vets refs, Bill Kennedy and former NBA player Leon Wood, are notable examples of 1995 replacement referees who wound up working in the league full time.

The referees have argued against the severity of a 10-percent budget cut by insisting that the late hours they work and difficult travel conditions they endure -- in addition to the injury risks and daily scrutiny they're subjected to -- make them unlike any other group of NBA employees. The refs' union has also protested the reductions by questioning the raises it says have been awarded to three senior league officials in New York -- Ron Johnson, Bernie Fryer and Joe Borgia -- who oversee the referee program.

McMorris also represents Major League Baseball umpires, whose labor contract expires Dec. 31. But the baseball negotiations, in the words of president of the umpires' union Joe West, are on track "to get a deal done well in advance of that date."

[Darthkiller]

the old refs suck donkey ass. just pull a dude from some random basketball court and they will ref better.

[iggypop123]

if they use ncaa ref's we might as well change the rule to 10 fouls for foul outs

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

the Lakers and Cavs are screwed if the NBA employs refs that aren't in Stern's pocket yet :smokin

[Mel_13]

All this over 700K spread over two years? I wonder if Stern and the top brass in the league offices have taken a 10% cut in their compensation packages.

[Culburn369]

the Lakers and Cavs are screwed if the NBA employs refs that aren't in Stern's pocket yet :smokin

I'm uber confident Stern will step in and brief the newbies as things pertain to my Lakers.

[DPG21920]

All this over 700K spread over two years? I wonder if Stern and the top brass in the league offices have taken a 10% cut in their compensation packages.

That is what I said. That is not a lot of money.

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

:lol true. If anything, the rookie refs will be awestruck and call things even more favourable for kobe, lebron, wade etc

[NRHector]

if they use ncaa ref's we might as well change the rule to 10 fouls for foul outsYeah and Kobe still won't foul out

[mojorizen7]

Replacement refs?
Shit, I may watch this year after all.

[BeeGee]

Maybe now they can get some refs not trained by lakers management:nope Says a fan of the 8th seed that got more shots from the line than every team not named Golden State or Denver last year. Have a seat.

[Culburn369]

Have a seat.

Yep, right next to Stockton (waitin' for his HOF induction) and all the other teams who've never won an NBA Championship.

Ya f'in' loser, you.

[BeeGee]

Maybe now they can get some refs not trained by lakers managementIn last season's first-round thrashing of the Jizz, Utah got 151 shots from the FT line to the Lakers' 145. Utah also got more shots from the line in every game except game 5, when you bitches got closed out and sent Salt Lake fishing.

You can have the refs... we still own thatass. This is not the late 90s, bitch.

[Culburn369]

when you bitches got closed out and sent Salt Lake fishing.

It was sweet too. Though they never put up much of a fuss. Sloan & his team rolled over almost from the opening tip. Kinda puny & weak.

[jazzypimp]

It was sweet too. Though they never put up much of a fuss. Sloan & his team rolled over almost from the opening tip. Kinda puny & weak.

That's funny, Thats what your gay friend lakaluv whatever his name is told me about his experience with you last night..

[Culburn369]

That's funny, Thats what your gay friend lakaluv whatever his name is told me about his experience with you last night..

Yeah, yeah, I know, but, your Jazz raised the white flag vs. my Lakers just a smidge past the first tip.

tee, hee.

[Hooks]

Does this mean we won't be last in the league in FT shots per game anymore????

[Culburn369]

Does this mean we won't be last in the league in FT shots per game anymore????

Only if you can:

A. Get Duncan off the arc and into the paint.

B. Get Duncan to divorce himself from the floor to which he is currently married to.