By: Brandon Sipherd

The NBA 2009 season began this week and luckily for players and fans alike, it began with its official crew of referees. Players, coaches and fans can breathe a sigh of relief that this season won’t be interfered with by B-squad referees making questionable calls. After a summer-long-lock-out, last Friday the NBA’s 57 referees approved a new two-year collective bargaining agreement.

Referees, under the previous collective bargaining agreement, enjoyed retirement bonuses of upwards of $575,000 and pension benefits that exceeded $2 million, with entry level referees making about $150,000 per year and senior referees making more than $550,000 per year. According to NBA Commissioner, David Stern, the league offered to keep current salaries while reducing the league’s referee costs by changing retirement benefits, travel budget and per diems to “bring their numbers in line with other league employees.” The league originally asked the referees to take $3.2 million in cuts while the National Basketball Referees Association offered to take $2.5 million in cuts. In addition, the NBA accepted the union’s demand for a unique two-year deal so that referees could renegotiate when the economy hopefully improves.

Lamell McMorris, of the National Basketball Referees Association, feels there was a pervasive, underlying sentiment to the negation not connected to the terms of the deal. He believes the league might be trying to push out older referees and may even be sending a message to NBA players, whose collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2011 season.

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