NBA Locks Out Referees

Sports Betting News - September 19th, 2009 - Written by John

Major League Baseball did it to it's players in 1994. The NHL did it to it's entire league in 2004-05. And now, the NBA says it is forced to lock out a major part of it's game - the referees.

According to a breaking report on Yahoo! Sports, both the league and the NBA Referee's Association failed to agree on a collective bargaining agreement Friday, and the league announced today that it will be forced to lock out it's game officials.

The league will instead use fill-in referees from the Development league and WNBA.

“The proposals we have made to the NBRA are extraordinarily fair and reasonable, given the current economic circumstances,” the NBA’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel Rick Buchanan said in a memo sent to Yahoo! Sports. “Since late 2008, the league and our teams have made far deeper cuts in non-referee headcount and expenses than we are asking for here.

“It is extremely disappointing that the NBRA has ignored the economic realities, rejected our offer, and left us with no choice but to begin using replacement referees.”

The move was made amidst a disput about budget cuts. With many NBA franchises in the red, some of them even suggesting they would play the 2010-11 season with fewer than the maximum of 15 players. The Miami Heat also announced it would take a 10-percent pay cut across the board that affected staff members such as head coach Erik Spoelstra and team President Pat Riley.

The league was hoping to come to a new agreement with the Referee's Association, but the NBRA disputed that the terms created too many give-backs to the league, and unanimously voted against it, 57-0.

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