NBA Searching the Globe for Good Refs

Ronnie Nunn, the former ref who now works as the director of development of NBA officials, tells the Toronto Star that we may soon hear whistles from foreign zebras: “The NBA can’t have enough young hawk-eyed types, so they’re expanding the search globally. Nunn has recently been to South Korea and Singapore to teach, and [Ron] Foxcroft said he has identified a few Fox 40 campers that he’ll ask Nunn to take a look at on Tuesday. While the NBA referee workforce is entirely American, Nunn said it ‘won’t be long’ until international whistles break into the league. Michael Weiland, the Calgary official who recently worked games at the NBA’s Las Vegas summer league, is the most likely candidate to be Canada’s first representative in NBA grey. Said Nunn of Weiland: ‘He’s just getting his feet wet, and he looks like he has some talent.’ Weiland will need thick skin, to be sure. Foxcroft said the first five years of his 25-year NCAA career saw every call met with a beef along the lines of, ‘Well, he’s Canadian, so what do you expect?'”