NEW YORK — The real referees will work the real games.
The NBA and its referees union agreed on a two-year contract Friday, ending a lockout of more than a month and saving the league from using replacements when the regular season starts.
The officials ratified the deal that was reached earlier this week in a vote Friday night. No details of the vote were provided, nor were terms of the agreement.
"We are pleased to reach this agreement," NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement. "The negotiations extended further than either side had hoped, but when our regular season tips off on Tuesday we'll have the best referees in the world officiating our games."
The referees union did not comment.
The referees will begin a three-day training camp Saturday and be ready when the regular season starts Tuesday. The league had been using replacement officials during exhibition play.
The contract between the league and the National Basketball Referees Association expired Sept. 1, and the league announced its was locking out the officials on Sept. 18, saying they had rejected its final contract offer.
The NBA decided to go with replacements late last month after the referees rejected a deal the league said its negotiators had already agreed to.
That raised the possibility of the league starting the season with replacement officials for the first time since 1995. But progress was made in a meeting this week at league headquarters that included Stern, who had previously pulled out of the negotiations after referees lead negotiator Lamell McMorris criticized the commissioner's behavior.
Stern rejoined the talks this week at the request of the referees.
"It was always our intention to make a deal and our hope. I thought that perhaps the rhetoric had gotten a little bit too heated and it would be better for me to withdraw," Stern said earlier Friday during a conference call. "But it was requested by the other side that I return and that they were coming in to make a deal and they asked me to be there, and I thought I owed them out of my respect to them to honor that request."
The referees' contracts have usually been for five years, but the NBA consented to a two-year deal at the request of the union, which hoped it could renegotiate sooner with the economy hopefully in better shape.
The sides agreed on a salary structure that would give the refs a slight raise in the second year, but they remained apart on proposed changes to the referees' pension and severance packages, as well as a plan to develop younger officials by having them work in NBA games.
Negotiations broke down multiple times. Stern angered the union when he abruptly ended one negotiating session, feeling the officials were reneging on previously agreed upon items. The league later accused the union of doing that again after the full roster of referees rejected a deal that had been reached in principle.
McMorris pulled out after that collapse, though he also returned and took part in the meeting this week.
The league used a roster of 62 replacements, mostly from the NBA Development League and WNBA, during the lockout. Stern said the backups "responded very well" and predicted that many would referee NBA games again.
"We of course knew we have to provide them with extra support, coaching and training, but they've responded very well," Stern said during the conference call. "We're very pleased with the effort, and we know you'll be seeing many of the people who you've seen on our court as future NBA referees.
The replacement officials were criticized for calling too many fouls, though the amount decreased later in the exhibition season, which ended Friday night.
"As the preseason went on, they were better," Houston coach Rick Adelman said. "I don't think they were arrogant, or anything like that. They gave the explanations and they were doing the best they could.
"The first couple (games) were just foul after foul and call after call and there was no rhythm to the games," Adelman added. "After that, I thought it settled down fairly well. They just called things differently than the normal officials. They're pretty much going by the book."
Some of the replacements likely will get another chance. The current staff includes 17 referees who started as replacements during previous work stoppages.
ECONOMY IMPACTS NBA ROSTERS: The still-scuffling U.S. economy may keep some NBA teams from starting the season with a full, 15-player roster, according to a survey of all 30 franchises by The Associated Press.
With the season opening next week and final rosters due on Monday, the survey found that nearly half the league plans to start with 15 players. But others will carry the minimum 13 or leave one spot empty.
Chief among the reasons was flexibility — having an available spot or two to keep options open for trades or injuries in the long, 82-game season. No teams outright said their decision would be driven by the economy, but the bottom line is clearly an issue.
"NBA teams are businesses like every other in this country," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote in an e-mail to AP. "Times are tough and I expect many if not most teams to carry fewer than 15 players on their rosters."
NBA teams are allowed to carry 12 active and three inactive players. Not filling all 15 slots would not leave a team at less than full strength for games, though it might leave it short-handed for practices.
Denver will start with a 13-player model after going with 14 last season and the full 15 in the two seasons prior.
In the first seven games last season, the Nuggets used more than nine players only once. Mark Warkentien, the team's vice president of basketball operations, said he likes having chairs open at the end of the bench, just in case.
"There's an obvious economic benefit. I'm not going to deny it," Warkentien said. "The compelling reason is the flexibility."
The minimum NBA salary this season is about $457,000 for rookies. The luxury tax threshold is about $70 million, meaning teams must pay a $1 tax for every dollar spent on salaries above that limit in a given year.
Expectations by coaches and general managers for their roster sizes this season are generally in line with previous years. L.A. Clippers general manager and coach Mike Dunleavy, for instance, said he's carried 15 players the past few years — 14 with guaranteed contracts — and expects the same again for this season.
But Dunleavy also said the Clippers have less of a financial burden this year by signing younger guys to less expensive deals.
"If we hadn't, then I think I probably wouldn't have had a 15th guy," Dunleavy said. "Everybody is very conscious of the revenue situation."
Cuban said he would like the Mavericks to carry only 13 players but will likely max out his roster after Dallas carried 16 guaranteed contracts into training camp. A trade left the Mavs with 15 guaranteed deals and one non-guaranteed contract ahead of Monday's deadline.The climate is bad news for players because it could mean fewer jobs in the league.
Curtis Jerrells, an undrafted rookie from Baylor who was cut by San Antonio this week, said he feared economic factors could make sticking with a team more difficult.
"That's stuff I can't really control," said Jerrells, whom the Spurs didn't waive for financial reasons. "The economic deal ... this is my dream. Regardless of what happens I'll go out and play hard. I'll be OK with it."
Billy Hunter, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, said the union is waiting to see whether NBA teams really keep rosters leaner this season or whether it's simply talk. The economic crisis and the number of teams struggling led Hunter and NBA commissioner David Stern to begin their collective bargaining talks early, in August, even though the current agreement runs through 2011.
"Obviously it's a concern for us as a union because we want to employ our guys," Hunter said. "So for every two guys on a team cut, you take 30 teams and if everybody reduced their roster by two, that's 60 jobs. So we're obviously concerned."
Minnesota is leaning toward carrying 13 players this season after maxing out their roster a season ago. Like Denver, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte and Philadelphia may also go a player or two fewer than a year ago.
Charlotte, which has lost millions each year since coming into the league in 2004-05, kept training camp at home this season to help cut costs and let go staff, including a scout. The Bobcats carried 15 players for most of last season but considered 14 during the preseason.
The Heat have generally carried 15 players and haven't ruled out doing so this year. Miami already entered training camp $3 million into the dollar-for-dollar tax, and team president Pat Riley wants as much financial flexibility as possible heading into next summer's potential free-agent bonanza in the NBA.
The Washington Wizards, meanwhile, are spending more on salaries this season than ever before and, with a $78 million roster, will be paying the luxury tax for the first time. It's about $8 million more than the Wizards spent last season — even though they expect to go from 15 to 14 players.
San Antonio went on an atypical spending spree this summer to bolster its title chances, taking Richard Jefferson and the $29.2 million owed to him over the next two years off Milwaukee's hands in exchange for three aging bench players.
Milwaukee will still carry 15 this season but would have preferred 14 for flexibility and injuries, Bucks general manager John Hammond said. But are smaller rosters more about roster flexibility, or the economy?
"They go hand in hand," Hammond said.
VETERAN GUARD JACKSON RETIRES: Bobby Jackson is retiring from the NBA.
The 12-year veteran guard, who spent six seasons with Sacramento, made the announcement Friday night before the Kings' preseason finale against the Utah Jazz.
Jackson averaged 9.7 points per game in his career. He was the league's Sixth Man of the Year in 2002-03 with averages of 15.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists.
The former University of Minnesota star played for Sacramento last season but was not re-signed in the offseason.
"It's a tough day for me because I'm retiring from professionally playing the game I love," he said. "But it's also a happy day because I'm retiring on my own terms."
Jackson will work with the Kings as an ambassador, promoting the team in local appearances and handling some scouting.