NBA Refs Briefed On Prospect Of Lockout As Preseason Approches

McMorris Says NBRA Remains "Wide Open" To Getting A Deal Done

The National Basketball Referees Association (NBRA) held a meeting with 57 NBA refs this morning in Chicago, and Exec Dir Lamell McMorris said that meeting would "serve as a briefing for the membership and a chance for the union's executive board ... to plot the next steps forward," according to Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com. The refs are "facing the prospect of a lockout" as the NBA's labor agreement with the NBRA expired September 1 and no talks have been scheduled since NBA Commissioner David Stern "angrily and abruptly ended a formal bargaining session" last week. McMorris said the NBRA remains "wide open, as we have throughout this negotiation, to getting a deal done." McMorris: "But any sensible person would have to agree that if someone throws you out of a meeting, it's probably up to them to call you back to the table" (ESPN.com, 9/15). CBSSPORTS.com's Ken Berger wrote it does not appear like the NBA and the referees will "get it together before preseason games begin" October 1. The referees' annual training camp in Jersey City, New Jersey, is scheduled to begin Sunday, and "no additional negotiations are scheduled" beforehand (CBSSPORTS.com, 9/15). In Toronto, Frank Zicarelli wrote the credibility of the NBA, which "took a huge hit following the Tim Donaghy scandal, will be challenged" with the potential presence of replacement referees. While fans "don't go out to watch an official," games with replacement referees "will not be good." That is "not good for business" (TORONTO SUN, 9/15). Meanwhile, FORBES' Tom Van Riper wrote Stern "has been a master at tackling whatever image problems flare up," and a labor dispute between the NBA and its referees "presents a rare opening for a house cleaning that's otherwise tough to do in a union-protected job" (FORBES.com, 9/15).

LABOR CLOUDS GATHERING: The NBA earlier this summer began negotiations with the NBPA over the next CBA, and SI.com's Steve Aschburner discussed the situations with both the union and the referees, writing it would be "felonious, on top of stupid, for the NBA and all its privileged members to threaten their already precarious well-being by fighting over pie slices in public." Aschburner: "Let's not get bogged down in the definitions of 'strike' vs. 'lockout' and where responsibility would lie; they'd all be guilty if they damaged the sport and themselves again or even crept within hours or days of any big ugly deadlines" (SI.com, 9/15).