Kenny Mauer

I thought today's guest speaker Kenny Mauer was very informative. It is always interesting to find out things that happen behind closed doors. A lot of the issues Mr. Mauer talked about dealt with the power struggle between the NBA referees and the commissioner's office. One bit of information that I found to be fascinating was the fact that the NBA commissioner's office had access to all of the referees financial statements and mortgages that gave them insight into how long some of the younger referees would be willing to hold out. I feel as this gives complete power to the NBA and should violate some kind of law. With this information the NBA is given the upper hand in negotiations. I also found it intriguing how the college referee system showed their support for the NBA refs by not allowing their officials to ref the NBA preseason without consequences. Through uniting the referees are able to acquire some of the power they are losing through the information battle. It is dumbfounding to think that the NBA would be this cheap to the referees who are among the top in the world. Officiating is not an easy thing and the NBA seems to be short changing them in operations. I believe Mr. Mauer's approach was well thought out and very wise. Throughout his years as a referee he has gone through labor battles like this before so he was prepared for what was to follow. He mentioned during a previous labor dispute that he made well over $100,000 by not signing the deal. Knowing that the NBA would look foolish to bring an entire new referee group made Mr. Mauer realize that his job was somewhat safe. The power structure of the NBA referees was also informative. They have nine representatives that are voted in every five or so years who represent the entire group. The way in which the majority votes among these representatives is how the entire body will be run. The last bit of information that I found interesting was Mr. Mauer's voting style. He had mentioned that he never voted for any NBA contract that was placed before him. He did mention that he would hold his ground, but if the rest of the union wanted to vote for he would show his support in doing so. I think this was a very worthwhile class period and would recommend doing it in future years if possible.