NBA Refs Possible Strike
 

Put up on ESPN.com
Marc Stein: NBA referees expect to be locked out on Oct. 1 - ESPN

The lead negotiator and spokesman for NBA referees announced Thursday that the referees expect to be locked out when exhibition play starts Oct. 1 after contract negotiations with the league broke down this week.

Note that a lockout and a strike are completely different.

The difference is in who is preventing work from being done. In a strike, the workers refuse to work. In a lockout, the employer refuses to let the workers work.

Cool! David Stern has my phone number. :)

Rarely do I support pro sport unions of any kind, and I'm not real sure which side I'd take here. However, in this case, these individuals are actual league employees under contract only with the league and all are based upon the same pay scale. Players are under contract to their team with no pay scale and actually breach that contract (usually) when they go on strike. Also, the discussion here is in regard to what percentage of a CUT, rather than an increase, is coming down. So the issues are a bit different than usual.

I'm a right to work/free market guy, so if the union refuses the contract and is locked out, I say if you get picked up, go work. But if the NBA folded, that wouldn't bother me a bit either!

From what I understand, there are about 40-50 D-League and 20-30 D1 college refs were asked to be the replacements. It will be $1000 to 1300 per game with travel, hotel, and meal.

I wonder how Leon Wood and Bill Kennedy feel about having replacement refs take their spots when they did the same thing?

I talked to one of my friends tonight who works in the D-league. The figures above are correct.

If the lockout lasts into November this is going to cause a significant problem. There aren't enough DL officials to handle the season and even if there were some of them have good D1 schedules. Also, the DL season starts in November so someone will have to officiate those games.

I'm sure there will be many people who would love to work...until they get in over their heads.

I wish I could be one of them!

I'm with you on this (that sound you hear is my grandfather rolling over in his grave), although this is one line I would not cross.

I was thinking about this again and there may some D1 officials who turn the NBA down. Think about it, make less money and possibly piss off someone (the assigner) who you will be working for in the long run. I don't know, maybe the NBA has contacted some young D1 officials who have at least pro-am experience.

D1 refs who were called were told to block out their college assignments. The NBA would assign games around their D1 games. The feeling among the D1 refs that were called is that the NBA would assign games near the college assignments to make it a "win-win" situation.

That would be a win-win situation, but I don't think that is going to work out all the time. Remember, some of these D1 officials barely have time to breath let alone an off day to work the Knicks/Celtics. Realistically, it isn't going to work as easy as scheduling games near their college games.

$1300 seems like quite a pay cut for a lot of them too.

At Least That's What I Heard ...
 

Are the Knicks still in the NBA? The way that they've been playing the past few years, I heard that they were invited to be the only male team allowed to play in the WNBA, the WNBA figuring that some of the women's teams would be able to get a few easy wins against the Knickerbockers.

Exactly.

So they take a NBA game over a game that will pay them more AND they could lose the next NBA game at any time if a new contract is signed AND it could piss their college assigner off in the process AND coach "X" is pissed because he has a $million riding on each victory without his "big dog" refs on the game.

It isn't likely.

What does David Stern make per day? I know that his annual salary is quite impressive.
It seems that the NBA referees are really on the low end of this billion dollar industry. The owners and players get a nice chunk of cash, and it seems that the league staff does well too.
$1,000 to $1,300 for working an NBA game just seems awfully low to me.