April 23, 2003

The Life of an NBA Referee: Today and Thursday the Sacramento Bee has a two-part series on the fishbowl professional life of NBA refs. "From within, where secrecy sometimes rules to such an extreme that the league won't release the annual salary ranges, the check-and-balance system is extensive." Bee reporter Scott Howard-Cooper got to spend a day with a game crew to prepare his stories.

posted by thescoop to basketball at 09:16 AM - 3 comments

Wow, that's a good article. I'm looking forward to the follow up on Thursday. I have always been interested in referees and umpires since reading all of Ron Luciano's great books as a kid. I notice from the article that only one woman referee is left...originally two were hired. Any idea what happened to the other one?

posted by vito90 at 03:37 PM on April 23, 2003

Here's part two. Very interesting article, I love the banter that goes on between the guys as they prepare for the game. It would be much fun to be a professional umpire or referee. I thought it was interesting that Joey Crawford alleged that his crew will be fined by the league for a mistake made during a game. Can you imagine getting fined by your employer when you make a boo boo? I'd be receiving zeroed out checks every two weeks.

posted by vito90 at 08:51 AM on April 25, 2003

For those watching the Laker-T'Wolves contest last night, which added fuel to the bitchfest by Laker-haters, this series is a good read.

posted by jackhererra at 10:06 AM on April 25, 2003

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