Joel Litvin, NBA president of league and basketball operations, said Tuesday that the league is much better prepared to open the season with replacement officials than it was in 1995, the last time they were used.
The NBA last week locked out its regular referees after failing to negotiate a new contract with their union, turning instead to replacements that will begin training camp Thursday in New York.
"This is a far different situation than it was the last time,'' Litvin told FanHouse. "Frankly, this is not the easiest situation to be in, but we've got the structure in place to make it a smoother transition.''
The biggest reason he expects a better performance is that in 1995, the league turned to replacements from the independent Continental Basketball Association. This time they are turning to replacements from the NBA Development League and the WNBA, whose officials have been working under the NBA guidelines. Those leagues didn't exist in 1995."They've already been part of our extended family. It's already our referee pipeline. They've been trained in NBA mechanics, NBA rules interpretation.''
-- Joel Litvin
"They've already been part of our extended family. It's already our referee pipeline. They've been trained in NBA mechanics, NBA rules interpretation,'' he said. "We like to think our regular officials are the 60 best in the world. We also believe these are the next 60 best.''
In 1995, the replacement officials worked the first two months of the season before the regular officials returned. The replacements were criticized routinely by players, who often tried to test the inexperience officials and use them to their advantage.
During the combined exhibition scheule and first month of the regular season that year, players were suspended a total of 26 games, although 16 of those came from a Kings/Pacers fight in which 13 of the players were suspended just for leaving the bench area.
In the last two months of that season, with the regular officials back on the job, players were suspended for a combined 24 games involving fights.
The NBA game was considerably more physical back in 1995 than it is today, and fighting was much more common. Harsher penalties with stiffer fines today have taken out most of the brawling.
NBA officials also are scrutinized much closer today than ever before. For every game now, there is an NBA observer in the stands rating the officials. And every game has video being reviewed by the league office, something that didn't exist in 1995.
"We'll know right away. It will let us identify sooner rather than later if a referee is not performing,'' he said. "And game assignments can be adjusted.''
Litvin also said he was surprised to see the referees union criticize the league for inviting Michael Henderson and Robbie Robinson to the training camp. Both were NBA officials from 2004-2007, but were released because of poor job performance.
"They are among the few officials in the world who have real NBA experience,'' he said. "Why wouldn't we bring them back?''
The first exhibition game is scheduled for Oct. 1. The first regular season game is Oct. 27. Although no talks between the union and the league are scheduled, the two sides have agreed on many of the major salary issues. There still is considerable disagreement over cutbacks the league is trying to make with pension benefits and severance packages.
