NBA Referees Return to Regular-Season Action Dec. 25
Dec. 25, 2011 — NBA referees, who are all members of the National Association of Sports Officials, returned to officiating regular-season games on Christmas Day. The NBA owners and players ratified a new collective bargaining agreement on Dec. 8, 2011, to put an end to a five-month long lockout. Preseason games started Dec. 16.
The National Basketball Referees Association (NBRA) and the NBA reach a five-year agreement in September 2011. Economic terms of the agreement were not released; however the NBRA disclosed that it obtained significant changes to its contractual work rules.
Those changes include: the elimination of aesthetic physical requirements; higher weight allowances for senior officials; maximum limits on sequential days and total days on the road in a single month; referee ability to remain on the road and have expenses covered if travel home would exceed a specified hour maximum; and new contractual family and medical leave protections.
NBA referees have been members of NASO since 2003 when the referees voted to include NASO membership with the NBRA package.