NBA Warns: Don’t Criticize the Refs

The League ain’t trying to hear it when it comes to the inevitable moaning about the replacement refs: “League policy prohibits public criticism of referees, with violators subject to fines, and that includes criticism of replacements. N.B.A. officials reminded teams of that in a memo sent Wednesday. ‘The replacement referees should be allowed to perform their difficult task free of public criticism by team personnel,’ says the memo … The memo threatens violators with ‘substantial fines,’ which has been standard league practice.”