THIS IS BREAKING NEWS...

The days of replacement referees have officially come to an end, just before the 2009-10 NBA regular season.

The NBA and the National Basketball Referees Association announced late Friday that they have entered into a new two-year labor agreement.  The agreement, which will cover the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, ends the lockout of referees that commenced on September 18.

“We are pleased to reach this agreement,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said.  “The negotiations extended further than either side had hoped, but when our regular season tips off on Tuesday we’ll have the best referees in the world officiating our games.  We appreciate the job done by our replacement officials during the preseason.”

Per league policy, terms of the agreement will not be disclosed.

The NBA referees will begin a three-day training camp this weekend in order to prepare for the start of the regular season on Tuesday.

As reported on just prior to the lockout, the league’s referees voted 57-0 in Chicago to reject the latest proposal by the NBA, and stayed “locked themselves in”, staying overnight to hammer out their counterproposal which had another $1 million in concessions. Lamell McMorris, the referees union spokesmanclaimed at the time that the NBRA agreed to $2.5 million of the $3.2 million in concessions the league was seeking at the time of the lockout.

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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