[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Jeff, like it or not, or agree with it or not, there's another factor in play here also. NBA officials are unionized, as are officials in all major sports- ex. baseball, football, hockey. The unions do have input into playoff assignments, staffing, wages, etc. I sureasheck could be wrong, but I doubt very much if the NBA could just unilaterally tell it's officials that 9 people are gonna work and the rest are gonna sit.

This is might not be true. I cannot speak for the NBA and what they have negotiated in their contract in the past. I know the NFL Official's union has discussed playoff assigning process and come to some details as to what the criteria is for playoff officials and this was apart of their last contract negotiation the NFL and the Official’s Union had. I am also pretty sure this was also a factor in the MLB Official’s contract negotiation when all those umpires retired at the behest of Ritchie Phillips. Every union I have ever heard of tries to negotiate every aspect of their job. Now they might not achieve those requests in total, but they do bring up those kinds of issues. I am sure there are some guidelines that the union comes up with things like how many games an official will work and if they work back to back games. So it is likely the NBA Official's Union had some say. It depends

Peace