Days after the NBA thought they had reached an agreement on a new contract with the National Basketball Referees Association they have announced that they will be going with replacement referees for the upcoming season after the NBRA turned down the offer.
I'm torn on this because it can go either way, the previous set of officials were substandard but at the same time don't you want the best product put on the floor every night? What makes the NBA think that the replacements can do a better job then the guys who have been officiating in NBA Finals and playoffs for the last five years? Where will the replacements come from, the college level? Those guys do just as bad of a job as the pros do and they are dealing with a different style of game. Are they going to bring in international refs but again you are dealing with a different style of basketball where the players are bigger, faster, stronger. So the big question is where are these guys going to come from.
On the other hand the replacement refs may have a fresh take on how the games should be called and maybe they will let the players play more then the league has allowed in the past. Maybe marquee players won't get their usual calls that they have in the past which would make for interesting basketball because it will change how players approach the game? The current refs won't have any bias towards certain players or teams so that's a good thing. Plus the NBA can start fresh with the refs and they will be able to build a new rep after the who cheating scandal involving Tim Donaghy.
I'm really on the fence with this because it's not like the new guys can do a worse job than their predecessors or maybe they will and the fouls will be called at an all time high and games will be long drawn out boring affairs. The one thing I do know is that in the short term the credibility of the NBA has been ruined but this could work out in the end, so I guess we will just have to wait and see.
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