Replacement Refs Stumbling Out of the Gate

NBA's replacement referees are stumbling out of the gate
By Justin Rogers | MLive.com
October 08, 2009, 12:27PM

Last week I asked the question, will NBA games suffer a significant decline in quality while the regular referees are locked out?

Through two exhibition games, it's easy to have mixed feelings.

Through three quarters of the first contest against the Miami Heat, I had forgotten that the game was being officiated by replacements.

Things weren't perfect though as Pistons Nation blog points out.

The scab refs have to be thankful this is just the preseason. They blew a couple routine plays. They failed to blow a play dead when Ben Wallace airballed the second of two free throws. Then in the fourth they sent the Will Bynum to the free throw line when Maceo Baston was fouled. Will made the two freebies, but then when it was corrected Maceo missed them both.

I actually find the second mistake kind of amusing, but we'll chalk it up to first-game jitters.

Last night's game against the Milwaukee Bucks didn't go much better. This quote comes from the AP game story.

The replacement referees caused confusion in the first quarter. Ersan Ilyasova was fouled while shooting a jumper and awarded two free throws. During the next timeout, more than 90 seconds later, the officials decided he had been taking a 3-pointer, and gave him another shot.

He made it, but Prince pointed out that the error was only correctable within 24 seconds, so the point was taken away from Milwaukee.

"I told him that they couldn't change it after five minutes or whatever it was, and he said 'yeah, you're right,''' Prince said. "Then I had to remind him to tell the scorer's table to take it back off the board.''

This reminds me of something that happened to me once. It's a long, probably boring story, so feel free to skip ahead to the comments.

You see, when I finished college, I wasn't able to find a job right away. After eight months of searching, I decided I would try my hand at substitute teaching to keep from drowning in bills.

To be a substitute teacher in Michigan you need your university to provide official transcripts documenting your credit hours. Instead of sending my transcripts, my school sent me a bill for nearly $1000. I was baffled.

It turns out the school realized they made an accounting error after I had paid my bill, taken my classes and received my degree. They felt I owed them $400 dollars, and instead of calling me or writing me a letter, they shot an email to my school email account, which I was clearly going to be using often after leaving school. That's when they started tacking on late fees each month.

Anyway, I wrote the school a long letter that read more like a slew of comedic insults than a person legitimately interested in amicably resolving the situation. Amazingly, the school removed the debt entirely.

Last night, these referees played the role of my alma mater trying to rectify their error when the time to fix their error had passed.

It's still very early, and the games don't matter yet, but the NBA had better hope they can reach a deal with the real officials or that the replacements learn quickly enough not to botch a meaningful call in a regular season contest.

NOTES: The replacement officials weren't an issue in the Bulls' first two games, but that wasn't the case Saturday. Neither side was happy with the way the game was officiated -- too many whistles, too many ticky-tack fouls -- and players and coaches from both teams expressed their displeasure.