Referee Holdout?

[OmarSekou]

On ESPN yesterday between a 5 minute piece on Lamar Odom/The Lakers and Skip Bayless and his lunacy, there was a very brief mention that the refs and league could not reach an agreement. It was stated that the NBA was planning on using replacements. Is this valid or something that happens every so often? Because it seems like no one is mentioning what could be the biggest story of the season if it's true.

[lon3lytoaster]

Skip Bayless is still around? Show's how much I watch ESPN. Dude doesn't know anything.

Anyway, this is the first time I recall it happening. Can't say I'm upset, though. Now the refs have an excuse for being horrible. Plus, I'm sick of seeing Violet Palmer, Eddie F. Rush and Dick Bavetta.

[Kwhit10]

An article concerning the replacement refs that happened back in the mid 90's.
Cliff notes: it's not a good thing...

September 23, 2009

Replacement Refs? A Look Back at 1995

By HOWARD BECK
NY TIMES

Labor disputes can create strange alliances and even stranger quotations. Fourteen years ago, the N.B.A. locked out its referees, handed their whistles to an army of wide-eyed substitutes and watched the insanity unfold.

The games got messy. The players got antsy. They wanted their old referees back — the same ones who, in any other season, would be the targets of their fury.

“They need five of these guys to equal one of the regular refs,” Charles Oakley, the former Knicks bruiser, complained in 1995. He described the replacements in one word: “Terrible.”

On the night the regular referees returned, after a 68-day standoff, some players could hardly contain their joy.

“The real refs are back?” the Washington Bullets’ Chris Webber said. “Hallelujah.”

If history is any guide, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard may soon be pleading for the return of their favorite nemeses. The league has again locked out its referees because of a breakdown in contract negotiations and will begin training some 60 replacements this weekend. The preseason begins in eight days.

The referees union has issued warnings about what lies ahead: more whistles but less control of the game. More fights, more injuries, more confusion.

“The integrity of the game will be questioned, because these folks don’t know the rules,” said Lamell McMorris, the union’s chief negotiator. “This is not going to be a pretty scene for fans and players.”

Perhaps. But much has changed in 14 years, including — the N.B.A. insists — the quality of replacement referees.

In 1995, the N.B.A. assembled a makeshift staff of officials from the Continental Basketball Association and pro-am leagues. The preseason opened with just 41 referees and the league was forced to use two-man crews, instead of the standard three.

League officials say they will have a full complement of 60 referees this time, allowing them to deploy three-man crews. The replacements are coming primarily from the N.B.A.’s own pipeline: the Development League and the W.N.B.A.

They have been trained by N.B.A. personnel for years, learning N.B.A. mechanics and play-calling expectations, said Joel Litvin, the league’s president for league and basketball operations.

“We will have a much stronger replacement staff this time than in ’95,” Litvin said.

Referee supervision is more advanced now. The league has observers at every game and a network of managers who regularly evaluate every referee.

“And if there is somebody who is not up to the task, that person won’t be scheduled in any more games,” Litvin said.

It seems unlikely there will be a repeat of one anecdote from 1995, when a replacement referee told the Warriors’ Chris Mullin that he had just called a game involving Mullin’s brother. Terrence Mullin played in a beer league.

The modern replacements will not be amateurs. “Not even close,” Litvin said.

The referees union is skeptical.

“Look, I think everyone who is honest about basketball will tell you that the level of play in the D League and below is not equal and it’s not the same to the N.B.A.,” McMorris said. “We’ll see what happens. We’ll all know shortly.”

When contract negotiations broke down last week, the union quickly distributed a fact sheet highlighting the worst effects of the ‘95 lockout: player suspensions totaling 26 games and fines totaling $202,500 in November alone.

Webber missed a month after injuring his shoulder in a preseason fight with Luc Longley — a fight that, some suggested, might have been averted with tighter officiating. Shaquille O’Neal needed surgery for a broken thumb after he was hacked by Matt Geiger.

Litvin said the union’s statistics were misleading. Although players were suspended for 29 games during the lockout, which ended in early December, that figure included 16 games of punishment for players who left the bench during a fight, but did not join the fray. Most of those, 14, stemmed from one incident, a Nov. 11 brawl between Indiana and Sacramento.

For comparison, the league compiled statistics from the last two months of the 1995-96 season, when the regular referees were in control. Players were suspended for 24 games in that span, Litvin said, and none for leaving the bench.

Based on that sample, Litvin said: “There’s no evidence at all that the games were rougher. In fact, there’s evidence to the contrary.”

Robert Horry, who played for the Houston Rockets in 1995, said he the replacement referees were “decent, but not at the level we’re used to.”

“The thing about when you had those amateurs on the floor, they didn’t know your tendencies,” said Horry, who retired in 2008. “A lot of things move so fast in the N.B.A., and they would assume things.”

Horry dismissed suggestions that games became more dangerous during the lockout, or that the injuries to O’Neal and Webber could be blamed on the replacements.

“It could be just a freak accident,” he said. “That could have happened with the regular refs.”

Derek Fisher, the president of the players union, issued a statement in support of the referees on Tuesday.

“Our fans deserve the best product that we can put on the court, and that includes having the best referees,” Fisher said. “Anything less is unacceptable to our union and our members.”

Sometimes, the replacements turn out to be pretty good. In fact, 17 of the N.B.A.’s current referees began as replacements. That group that includes some of the league’s most respected referees, as well as some of its most controversial.

Joey Crawford joined the N.B.A. during a strike in 1977. Danny Crawford, Ken Mauer, Eddie F. Rush and Derrick Stafford got their start during a lockout in 1983. Twelve others, including Bill Kennedy and Leon Wood, broke into the N.B.A. during the 1995 lockout.

“I think it speaks to the fact that our current staff of referees are the 60 best in the world,” Litvin said, “and the referees who will replace them are probably pretty close to being the next best 60 in the world.”

The world, it seems, will soon get the chance to judge for itself.