Mike Mathis, lead negotiator for the NBA's locked-out referees, is hopeful that a fracas during an exhibition game this week will spotlight how much regular officials are needed.
The NBA's 54 referees have been locked out since Oct. 1. The league has hired replacements, mostly from the ranks of the Continental Basketball Association, to officiate exhibition games in groups of two.The replacements are simply not as experienced as the NBA's regular game officials, Mathis said, and that leads to problems such as Tuesday night's fight between Washington's Chris Webber and Chicago's Luc Longley.
"It's going to get worse," Mathis said Wednesday, the longer the lockout lasts.
"One of the marks of a veteran referee is sensing problems and getting to them before they escalate," said Mathis, who has worked NBA games for 19 years.
Webber said after the game that Longley started elbowing him in the first quarter.
In the final minute of the first half, the two players were battling for position in the lane and began pushing before each threw a punch. While they grappled, Washington rookie Rasheed Wallace tomahawked the basketball at Longley's head. Even Michael Jordan got involved, trying to keep Wallace from getting at Longley.
Both Longley and Webber were ejected from the game in Chicago. Wallace stayed in the game.
Mathis also pointed out that the two-man replacement crews can't see as much of what's going on as can the customary three-man crews.
"Three can't see everything, but they can see bad blood developing," Mathis said from his home in Cincinnati.
NBA officials declined comment on Mathis' remarks. Rod Thorn, the NBA vice president in charge of game officials, was in London for the McDonald's Championship.
Before the incident in Chicago, Thorn said the replacements were "doing fine."
But a few players - Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo and Charles Barkley among them - have groused publicly about the substitute refs.
Toronto Raptors vice president Isiah Thomas questioned how well the replacements knew the rules when one of his own players, Oliver Miller, left the bench and ran the length of the court to join a shoving match between Philadelphia's Sean Bradley and the Raptors' John Salley.
"Probably, if we had the regular officials, it wouldn't have gotten that far," Thomas said after last week's game at Halifax, Nova Scotia. "There probably should have been an ejection."
The referee lockout seems likely to last into the regular season, which begins Nov. 3. The two sides met last week without making progress, and no new talks were scheduled.
The refs, who say they're the lowest-paid officials in pro sports, are seeking a pay raise of 26-28 percent over three years.