Refs No Longer Allowed to Leave a Tip

Sorry, locker room attendants. Your days of receiving tips from the zebras are now a thing of the past: “The new collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and National Basketball Referees Association prohibits referees from paying tips or compensation of any kind to locker room attendants or other team or arena personnel for personal services performed for referees by such personnel during games. Consequently, team and arena personnel are now prohibited from asking for or accepting tips or other compensation from referees’ said the memo, which was signed by Ronald Johnson, the league’s senior vice president of referee operations. ‘This is an important change to the CBA,’ the memo states. ‘While we do not believe that the pre-existing practice of tipping locker room attendants has affected the integrity of the officiating in any way, it could be perceived in a negative light, and it is therefore best to eliminate this practice.”