RSS
Home
NBA referees end lockout
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
NBA
The NBA and the referees union have come to terms on a 2 year deal, ending a lockout that lasted over a month.
The officials ratified the deal that was reached earlier this week in a vote on Friday. No terms of the agreement were revealed.
"We are pleased to reach this agreement," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "The negotiations extended further than either side had hoped, but when our regular season tips off on Tuesday we'll have the best referees in the world officiating our games."
The NBA and the National Basketball Referees Association's contract expired September 1, 2009. Due to the struggling economy the NBA wanted to cut salaries, travel costs, pension payouts and health benefits of the referees. The referees were against this idea and refused to agree to those terms.
The NBA responded by using replacement officials from the WNBA and NBA Developmental League. That experiment had its ups and downs. NBA coaches such as Larry Brown and Stan Van Gundy received fines for their criticism of the replacement officials.
I'm sure Stan and Larry are breathing a sigh of relief right now. Now they can go back to complaining to the officials that the're used to complaining to.
No word has leaked about exactly why the referees came to an agreement with the NBA. I guess less money is better than no money because the refs are back and the games are set to begin!
The referees will begin a three-day training camp today in order to be ready when the regular season starts Tuesday.
Related Articles:
Comments
