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LOS ANGELES Have you hugged your referee lately?
I can't think of a profession more reviled than officiating a major-league sport (although, from some of my hate mail, sportswriting is at least in the conversation). So, naturally, when the NBA locks out its referees, much of the public isn't particularly sympathetic to the plight of the temporarily unemployed.
Refereeing has always been a strange profession, in that the highest compliment is to be ignored. When they make the right call - and the vast majority of the time they do - it's taken for granted. When they aren't in perfect position to see the shove that might have precipitated the elbow that was cause for a foul, they're ridiculed.
And even when they're right they're still wrong. When was the last time some dude at the next barstool screeched, "I just lost $100 on the Celtics but, boy, the ref sure did get that last call right against Garnett!''
I gave this some thought the past few days after the NBA walloped the Charlotte Bobcats and coach Larry Brown with a combined $120,000 in fines. The press release stated some well-worded rationalizations: How Brown had "verbally abused'' replacement officials in Atlanta. How he failed to leave the court quickly enough after being ejected. How Brown criticized officials after the fact.
But you'd have to be vapid to miss the league's real intent. Brown was being pounded for even hinting the self-apparent: that the replacement refs (either by instruction or for a lack of experience) are blowing their whistles more. That makes the games longer and interrupts their flow.
And while Brown never used this description, I will: The product is suffering for the veteran referees' absence. Everyone in the league knows that. Banging the Bobcats and Brown with such fury was the best way to keep others from saying so publicly.
The league expects some considerable givebacks from the referees association, primarily concerning retirement benefits. These guys get paid well, mostly in the six figures. They should be paid well. The players are so fast, athletic and brutish that keeping order and getting it right is exceptionally challenging.
I've heard from more than one referee - and long before this labor dispute - that NBA Commissioner David Stern talks dismissively to the refs as a group. They deserve more respect; the travel, the odd hours and the mounds of paperwork (hours of reports that must be completed after games) would overwhelm most of us.
But then, why treat them like real people or craftsmen? They're refs. Walk into any tavern in these 50 states, and you'll hear how they're blind. And stupid. And every one of them has a vendetta against fill in your favorite team here . And if that Tim Donaghy guy was passing info to gamblers, then you know they're all just as crooked, right?
I'm mean, they're #@!&* refs!
And if the ones who know what they're doing aren't back on the job by the season opener, you'll learn to miss them, too.
