The NBA recently told teams in the league to expect the season to begin with replacement referees instead of full time employees. The NBA and the referees’ union could not come to an agreement and thus the new season will begin with part time officials.

This decision by the NBA is surprising as last year’s betting scandal with Tim Donaghy shows that gambling is tempting even for full-time employees. So one might imagine it will be even easier for a part time employee to take advantage of betting.

Many believed that the NBA would pay the officials what they wanted as well as guaranteeing that the best possible officials would be on the court but apparently that is not to be. Ron Johnson has stated that his team will be supervising the new officials very closely. Johnson was hired to oversee referee operations after the Donaghy case started.

NBA president of basketball operations Joel Litvin commented: “We’ve got safeguards in place that apply to all our officials. There are strict policies when it comes to gambling. I don’t view this as an added risk whatsoever.”




- 2009-10-02