Four veteran referees with a combined 72 seasons of N.B.A. experience have retired or moved on: Joe DeRosa, Joe Forte, Sean Corbin and Phil Robinson. The vacancies will be filled by five Development League referees, one of whom will stand out for his size if nothing else.
The 60-person staff for 2010-11 will be younger and less experienced, continuing a recent trend. The league has lost several seasoned referees over the last half decade, mostly to injury or retirement.
Steve Javie, one of the league’s best referees, nearly joined that group but will return for a 25th season. Javie, 55, considered retiring after a painful knee condition forced him to miss most of last season. He has decided to return, however. Javie has worked 210 playoff games, including 21 finals games.
Dick Bavetta, who turns 71 in December, is returning for his 36th season despite persistent rumblings that the league is pushing him to retire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/sports/basketball/15referee.html?_r=2
Not the 4 I'd have picked to go first. One can only hope this is an initiative that leads to more competent officiating.
Your hundredth TP twinbree! Awarded by Tha Preacher.
Great find. But what I want to know is who are the top 5 anti-Celtic referees that currently are in the league. Did we win or lose with this move?
DeRosa was one of the top 5 Pro-Celtic refs, so that's a loss. Ken Mauer and (in '08) Dan Crawford are other pro-Celtic refs (with anti-Laker Bob Delaney, they ref'd the alltime finals record for ft disparity in game 2 of '08 Finals).
Joey and Dan Crawford seem to pick and choose their games of corruption - so I can't call THEM exclusively anti-Celtic - but I'm sure many feel that way due to both of them being involved in game 7 last year, (and as well Joey being lead ref in the game 1 loss and Dan in game 3).
Bennett Salvatore (3 techs/Doc ejected/fined vs the Hawks, NBA later says Doc was right), Ed Rush, and Bill Kennedy are clearly top 5 anti-Celtics...
