Dear refs, You chose to be a ref, now shut up. How dare this dumb woman. No one held a gun to the refs and said "you have to be a ref". They chose to be one because A. They love it, and B. They are well compensated. I travel a lot for my job, and am compensated well. Like NBA refs, I make more than some of our office staff, but would never think to bitch about my time away from family. I choose to do it because I get paid more. Fuck her.
Hey, my job has some shitty aspects to it as well. My boss is an complete dickhead. I have to put in long hours without anything in the way of thanks. The work I do can be boring as shit. Benefits are getting cut. Haven't gotten a raise in 2 years. The office environment itself is a shithole. My coworkers are a bunch of no-talent assclowns who fuck around all day and expect me to bail them out at the last minute. But I chose the job. So I deal with the bad aspects. And there are some amazing parts of my job as well. Just as there are wonderful and horrible parts to being an NBA referee. Fuck you referee's wife. If your husband hates his job so much, tell him to find a different line of work.
I think I just heard Gabriel's trumpet! I actually agree with PapaG! What's more I agree with a political point he is making! My head spins, the room getting...blurry...typing becoming difficult... But seriously, I agree with PapaG. Look it is a difficult job and (sadly) the NBA refs are the best in the world. I'm not up to par on the specifics of the offer by the ref's that the NBA rejected. Yes, dude makes good money, however as PapaG pointed out he is at best Upper Middle Class. I think there is a balance to be struck between saying dude gets paid well and it's his dream so the sacrifice is ok and the actual reality of it. I for one can't imagine being away from my kid that much and I think her point about being away from the family more then Players really is something. Finally and most importantly, unless we are talking about a dispute between Stern and Kim Jong Il i'm pretty much always going to go with the guy opposite Stern on the "Vs.' fight card. F to the capital UCK Stern and where it hurts too. That guy is my least favorite personality in the NBA and I include Kobe in that statement.
Wow--I can't believe how completely you all missed the point of the letter. Allow me to refresh your memories... From what I can see, she's not complaining about the life--she's illustrating the vast gulf that exists between the life of a referee and that of ANY other employee of an NBA team. She's saying that while it's true that refs are currently paid more than office staff, they should be paid more. And she's right.
Wow. Not one person is on her side. Maybe I sided with her a little bit because of MY travel schedule. I love my job, but this will be my 5th straight X-Mas of either working or traveling. I know I chose my profession, but when you are all the way on the other side of the country missing your 7 year old's soccer game or 4 year old's pre-school X-mas show it is tough. I have missed the last 4 Mother and Father's Days. Maybe if I didn't have kids and a wife it would be different.
I agreed with her! I also agree with Ptldplatypus NBA refs are not akin to NBA front office staff. I also noticed that point but got caught up in what other folks said so I forgot to mention it. I felt like what she was saying made quite a lot of sense actually. The other posters also have valid points about ample compensation and this being a known situation for the employee. With that said it seems to me like the Refs should be the last guys to get squeezed. It's the same reason I think we should pay our Representatives absurdly well. Corruption is easy with underpaid officials. If you don't pay your soldiers as Russia found out, eventually they stop guarding the Nukes, they start looking for someone to sell them too. Likewise, if the Refs are NOT well compensated...well Jimmy no-neck has a few points he'd like shaven.
Well said. If the refs' primary job is to make sure everyone is playing by the rules, they are essentially the guardians of the game's integrity. Definitely worth a significant investment.
Jeebus, we're an unsympathetic lot. I actually agree with a lot of what she wrote. Yes, NBA refs make good money compared to most regular Joes, but they are the best in the world at what they do and posses a very unique skill. Good god, for all the bitching and moaning fans do about the quality of the officiating in the NBA you'd think the last thing they'd want would be a bunch of scab refs, or guys who are willing to do the job for less money. And why are the refs being singled out for cuts in pay and benefits? Is anybody asking the office and clerical staff to take similar cuts? Are Stern and his cronies sacrificing their pay and benefits for the good of the league? Again, compared to Joe 6-pack the refs make a lot of money, but compared to the cost of putting on an NBA game and running the league (players salaries, coaches salaries, Stern, Jackson, etc, salaries, etc.) they make a pitance - yet the quality of their work has a huge impact on the game. Whining aside, for me it's simple. If you want the best refs in the world, pay them accordingly. If you're willing to settle for 2nd rate officials, by all means cut their salaries and benefits and bring in the replacements. Yeah, that will improve the quality of your product. Also, the refs jobs don't stop at calling the game. They are required to review film of every game and rate their performance. They also have to attend training sessions and league meetings. They teach clinics in the off season to train/recruit new refs, etc. The have no home games. In the NBA, a 5 or 6 game road trip is considered grueling. For a ref, their entire season is one long road trip. Again, I don't feel sorry for them as this is the profession they have chosen. I'm just trying to point out that there are demands on this job that make it unique and comparing it to a regular 9:00 - 5:00 office job is ridiculous. BNM
I was just playin'; it takes a lot more than that to offend me. Not that that's an invitation or a challenge...
So? Being fairly compensated is being fairly compensated. They do their dream job, get well paid and then moan & groan during a depression when many people are losing their jobs (like my wife) and many others are losing salary and/or benefits (like me). It's hard to have sympathy.
It's called The Economy- or lack thereof. Well, hell, let's just give them $20,000,000 per year and call it good. Compared to other professional refs/umps, they get their fair share. Sure, we'd all like to make more money, but Miss America ain't street walking in Portland at 2AM, either. I dunno, her whiny letter struck me wrong when I look at what so many people are going thru.
But, they aren't asking for more money. The NBA is asking them to take cuts in pay and benefits. Sure, the NBA can save a little money (last I heard the league was still turning a profit) by locking out the refs and hiring lower cost replacement officials, but the quality of their product will suffer. In spite of the current economic climate, ticket prices are up. So, I am being asked to pay more for a lower quality product and that pisses me off a lot more than a whiny letter from somebody's wife. BNM
I think once the season actually starts and a bunch of hastily trained refs are fucking your team over, a lot of you will come around. The point is referees have a unique skill and they can/should leverage that skill to make as much as they can. Also I don't think she was complaining about those aspects of reffing but she was saying something more along the lines of getting compensated accurately for what you do.
