For months now, the dirty little secret around the NBA is that the league is preparing for what could be a lengthy lockout.
No, not that lockout.
I'm not referring to the potential lockout that the league faces in 2010 after the current collective bargaining agreement is up. We're still a long way from throwing out the "L" word and having a repeat of the unfortunate 1999 season, where the league crammed 50 games into less than half of the scheduled time for the NBA season, forcing teams to have to play on three consecutive nights just to complete even a partial season.
The league and the players association have already begun negotiations to avoid that lockout. That potential lockout is a worst-case-scenario for the NBA.
But the lockout that I'm talking about is a close second.
The one I'm referring to is the potential lockout of the NBA's referees.
If a deal isn't struck by October 1st, the NBA will lockout all of the referees and will start the season using replacement refs.
The last time this happened, back in 1995-96, it wasn't until late December that an agreement was reached and the NBA officials went back to work, but not before missing most of the first half of the season.
There are two schools of thought here.
The first one, and the one that I have a feeling most NBA fans have, is, "Who Cares? The refs suck anyway, it's not like the replacement referees are going to be any worse."
And then there's the other school of thought, the side that I happen to be on, "uh-oh."
I know I'm probably in the vast minority here, but I think that the NBA officials are by far the best official of the three major league sports.
The MLB's most import rule, the one that affects literally every single pitch, the strike zone, is interpreted differently by each one of the 70 Major League Baseball umpires. It's unbelievable to me that the most basic rule in the sport fluctuates from game to game depending on who the umpire behind the plate is for that game.
Then there are the world's most famous part-time employees: NFL referees. After a nice 12-hour day of enjoying the NFL's kickoff weekend on Sunday, I had one lingering thought, "I can't believe I forgot how bad the NFL refs are."
The Lion/Saints game dragged on for nearly an hour longer than the other 1 o'clock games because the officiating was brutal in the third quarter. The refs couldn't agree on a call, they blatantly missed an out of bounds call that took a touchdown away from the Lions (albeit briefly since they scored a few plays later), and there were three different plays that were highly questionable that the coaches wanted to challenge, only for reasons that no one can explain, the plays in question weren't reviewable.
Why even have instant replay if you can't use it to get every call right?
Now, the NBA faces a real problem if they have to enter the season using replacement referees, and by all accounts, that's exactly what is going to happen.
Both sides are still very far apart in negotiations, and there are currently no further talks scheduled between now and October 1st, the first scheduled preseason game.
No, the NBA refs aren't perfect, but they are better at their jobs than the other professional referees. And I promise you this: they are 10 times better than the replacement refs they are going to bring in. There's a reason these guys aren't reffing NBA games in the first place: they are good enough.
I've written it before and I'll say it again: people only blame the referees for deciding NBA games because they don't know anything about basketball.
Now the league, a league that has done a masterful job of sweeping the embarrassing gambling scandal under the rug, suddenly opens the door for nonstop complaining from fans about replacement referees blowing calls because the two sides are $700,000 apart on where they feel the budget should be for this season.
Some people believe that David Stern is sending a message to the players that it's going to be his way or the highway when it comes to negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement. By not conceding anything to the referees, he's actually making a veiled threat to the players that he won't be conceding anything to them, either.
Others believe that by locking out the officials and demanding the refs make some concessions on their retirement benefits, Stern is trying to force out some of the older officials to make way for a new, younger generation of referees that he and his staff can mold into what their vision of a good official is.
Either way, the real losers in this equation are the fans. It's bad enough that there might not even be a season in 2010-11, but now we as fans might have to sit through months, maybe even an entire season, of poorly officiated basketball games called by referees who have no business being on the court in the first place.
I'm not saying the NBA is completely in the wrong here. The bad economy is hurting everyone, but the refs have already agreed to take a 10% decrease in pay from last season. The league is demanding nothing less than 15%.
I know the league has to protect itself and make money to stay afloat, but the only way to save money is by cutting $3.2 million from the referee budget? Are we sure there isn't a trip to China or something we can cancel first and see where that leaves us?
Before Stern turns the key and locks out the officials on October 1st, he needs to ask himself one simple question, "What's more important? Putting out the absolute best product for our fans, or $700,000?"
My gut tells me that Stern is going to play hardball and make the refs come down to his number. NBA basketball will suffer because of it.
And when it does, I hope someone makes a YouTube video with the cool piano music playing in the background that shows overwhelmed and under-qualified officials blowing calls with the caption "WHERE AMAZING HAPPEN$."
Maybe then David Stern will realize that there are some things you just can't put a price tag on.
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