Steve C. Wilson/Associated Press

Now that the much maligned Referee Lockout of 09 has ended, we can start looking forward to an NBA season unmarred by the sub-par replacement refs. However, before we say good day to them, I have a few thoughts on what may wind up being short-term pain for long-term gain for the game of basketball. After all, these replacement refs all came from somewhere. That somewhere was mostly the D-League. The place where NBA teams send players who need some more grooming before they are ready for the big show. As we’ve seen over the past 3 weeks (since I’m assuming most of you, like me, are not big followers of all things D-League), the referees in the D-League are not good. But for the past 3 weeks, those crappy refs have gone to school. They’ve been dropped into the middle of the Atlantic and told to sink or swim. I know they’ve been bad but if they haven’t learned a little every game they’ve worked, then I don’t know how they got jobs in the first place. These refs can now go back to the D-League better at their jobs. How does that help us? Well, they are in a league responsible for player development. Improved refereeing helps them in a few ways.

First, bad reffing, in my mind, ALWAYS leads to selfish basketball. This is because rather than put a premium on good decision making and ball movement, players are inclined to keep the ball and try to make something happen. The reason? They say to themselves “Worst case, I wind up on the line anyway”. Not a good mentality for most young ballers in the D-League to take. In fact, the only people good enough to take that line of thought are not only NBA players, but stars in the NBA. So anything that can help break that habit is a big plus.

Second, a better refereed game leads to a better game. A better game leads to better players. If the replacement referees were the full-time ones in the NBA, how long would it take for coaches and players to change their styles of play to maximize on the stupidity of the refs? One week? Two? It’d turn into ugly basketball really fast. What happens in ugly basketball is talent gets minimized. Poor refereeing in basketball is like playing football in a rainstorm, the poor refereeing acts as a great leveller. The talent playing field becomes evened and both sides just try and overcome the elements preventing them from playing properly. One of the main reasons players are in the D League to begin with is to get experience. But if the experience in no way shape or form resembles the NBA experience (where talent generally rises to the top), how does it really help?

Third, what’s the difference between the highest levels of elite sport and the levels below it? It’s not talent necessarily, it’s consistency. That’s what young players need to learn. But how can we expect the raw talent going to the D-League to work on consistency when there’s no consistency in what’s a foul and what isn’t? For the players themselves to be able to get ready for the NBA, they need the rule-book to be interpreted the same way as it is in the NBA. If the players can know that THIS is a charge in the NBA and will be called so accordingly from now on; they have something to work on. If there isn’t any consistency behind whether a call is a block, a charge or the always awesome double foul, or even any number of other iffy calls that we’ve seen, how are the kids supposed to play properly? Instead of playing real basketball, the players are trying to draw fouls, but they can’t even do that too well due to the consistently inconsistent whistles. This HAS to be hindering their development. I have zero statistical evidence to back this theory up with, but I strongly believe it nonetheless. It seems impossible to me that chaotic, inconsistent games are allowing the players the proper opportunity to develop into potential NBA (or Euroleague) players.

Best of all, this lockout should have sent a picture loud and clear to the NBAPA that Stern isn’t fucking around. The outcome of this lockout proves a few things: David Stern means business. David Stern has all the cards. David Stern isn’t afraid to play the cards. The NBAPA can look at this lockout and marvel at how the owners stood united, in the face of an inferior product as well as fan and team anger. The NBAPA can look at this lockout and notice how the owners and commish not only didn’t panic, but they didn’t even blink. How they piled the pressure on the referees union until they folded. Heading into their own labour negotiation, the NBAPA have to feel like the dude in Detroit who Artest attacked in err. They see this truck coming at them and pray it’s going by, but it keeps getting closer, and closer, and then suddenly it’s too late and they’re smacked in the face. You don’t think the NBAPA was watching this lockout? You don’t think they saw what happened and how it shook down? How the league and owners never waived, despite fan and team pressure? You see how the NBA took a 3 week lockout and smiled? This could be happening to them a year from now should they not be able to come to a new collective bargaining agreement. The PA now knows what the referees association now knows; there really isn’t any more money, revenue projections are shrinking practically daily (it was as much as by 5% last I heard over the season). The NBA is in a no-lose situation; either the PA capitulates and they get their more efficient economic model (I assume something similar to the NHL’s deal), or they go on strike and just wait it out. And if the NBA is in a no-lose situation (it’s unreal how Stern guides the league into those places. It ALWAYS seems like every situation is a no-lose proposition for the NBA), then the PA is in a no-win situation. I am SO glad I’m not the one who has to tell Ron-Ron and Stephen Jackson they’re going to have to take pay cuts. My advice to Billy Hunter: get insurance. These 3 weeks of replacement refs could save 2 or 3 months of the NBA in the 2010-2011 season. No small potatoes.

And finally, the NBA now has a pool of 50 refs who they started advanced training on. They need to go the extra mile and keep training these guys. Some of the current NBA refs are OLD. Very old. They won’t be able to last much longer. These replacement refs have provided a wake-up call to the league, the referees and the fans that there is a drastic and alarming gap between the quality of current NBA refs and any prospective future NBA refs. The league needs to spend money, starting now, today, on getting at least some of the 50 replacement refs groomed for potential NBA action in the near future. Maybe not en mass like the past few weeks, but could 5 or 6 new referees in the next 2 or 3 years be that harmful to anyone? We all know it’s needed, just do it. Spend the time and money. You never know when injuries or age will necessitate an extra 4 or 5 refs be called into duty.

So here we are, the replacement refs are done. Was the preseason poorly officiated? Yes. Will it impact this season in any way shape or form? Of course not. It’s the preseason, just like we ignore player stats from pre-season we can ignore ref stats too. But we did get a violent wake-up call to improve development for future referees. Now we know how far they need to come before they can be NBA refs. And something needs to be done about it now. Like as you’re reading this now. Stern, if you’re reading this (and I know you are. Because I… am the King of England! Well, not really. But he should be reading!), go. Now. Set up the camps, set up the conferences, set up the process of getting these guys some relevant experience and skills. And who knows, maybe thanks to this three weeks of suffering, down the road we could start seeing prospects from the D-League slightly more NBA ready. Or maybe even actually NBA ready. While the NBA preseason suffered (and so did Larry Brown’s wallet), the game of basketball itself stands poised to have improved itself and its standing in the North American sports community immeasurably.