NEW YORK — The NBA has told teams it's going ahead with
replacement referees, days after the league thought a deal had been reached with
locked-out officials.
The league sent a memo Tuesday informing teams it had "no
expectation of concluding a timely labor contract." The memo, obtained by The
Associated Press, follows the latest failure in negotiations.
According to the memo, the sides had agreed in principle
on a new two-year deal Friday. But the National Basketball Referees Association
rejected the NBA's proposal Sunday.
The memo alludes to the reversal, saying, "this is not
the first time that commitments made by the NBRA's negotiators were not met."
Commissioner David Stern previously ended one of the bargaining sessions when
the league felt the referees backed out of previously agreed upon concessions.
News of the memo was first reported by Yahoo! Sports.
The NBA held referees training camp with replacements
over the weekend and will release its roster of backups before the first
preseason game, scheduled for Thursday at Utah.
The union's five-person executive board originally voted
to recommend the approval of the league's proposal to the membership, according
to an official familiar with the talks. However, one of the board members then
switched his vote, and the full membership then rejected the deal as well.
The official requested anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.
The contract between the league and its officials expired
Sept. 1 and they have been unable to reach a new deal. Negotiations broke down
at least twice as the sides remained apart on the league's proposed changes to
the referees' pension and severance packages, as well as a plan to develop
younger officials.
In the memo, the NBA told teams that the deal in
principle would have resulted in savings in the referees program by
approximately 3.5 percent over the next two years. Previous deals with the
officials have been for five years, but the league agreed to make it two in this
contract so the referees could renegotiate sooner, when it hoped the league's
economic situation had changed.
The league last used replacement officials early in the
1995-96 season. Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown, who was coaching Indiana at
the time, hopes a deal gets done quickly.
"It's a very difficult thing for me, personally. I've
been with a lot of those guys my whole career," Brown said. "I've watched them
get better and I'm hopeful that they thought I've gotten better. Now if we're
going to have young guys come in, I don't know if they're ready, just like our
young kids."