By BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer

NEW YORK — The NBA will hold training camp next week with
replacement officials, saying the referees union has rejected
its final contract offer.

The National Basketball Referees Association has been bracing
for a lockout since talks first broke down last week, and lead
negotiator Lamell McMorris called it “imminent and unavoidable”
after no deal was reached Thursday.

A statement from the NBA on Friday made it clear the lockout was
under way.

“It is extremely disappointing that the NBRA has ignored the
economic realities, rejected our offer, and left us with no
choice but to begin using replacement referees,” executive vice
president and general counsel Rick Buchanan said.

McMorris said the referees didn’t view Thursday’s negotiations
as a final offer, yet wasn’t surprised by the NBA’s decision.

“I predicted that a lockout was forthcoming and yet it does not
mean that both sides cannot continue to talk and work through
some of these issues,” McMorris said.

Training camp was scheduled to begin Sunday, but will now be
pushed back into sometime next week to give the NBA time to line
up the replacements and get them to New Jersey. The league did
not say how many referees would be at camp. There are 57 active
NBA officials.

The league began contacting replacements last Wednesday, the day
after the last face-to-face meeting between the sides in New
York, which commissioner David Stern abruptly ended because he
said the officials reneged on a previously agreed to proposal.

McMorris said he “absolutely disputes” that, insisting
replacement officials – including some who had been fired by the
league – were contacted well before the last session.

The contract between the NBA and its officials expired Sept. 1,
and the sides had been trying to reach a new two-year deal. They
largely agreed on salaries, which would have held steady this
year and given the refs a slight increase in the second year,
but the union balked at the league’s attempt to change
retirement benefits.

The league also sought to lower costs through reductions in
areas such as the travel budget and per diems, and the union
also fought a league plan to develop younger officials. But the
biggest difference was in the referees’ pension and severance
plans.

The NBA’s statement said the previous deal gave the referees
retirement bonuses of up to $575,000, on top of pension benefits
that could exceed $2 million. It said that came on top of
compensation totaling nearly $150,000 per year for entry level
referees and more than $550,000 annually for the most senior
referees.

McMorris was upset the NBA included salary information in its
release, calling it a “distortion of the referees current
compensation”, since he contends the NBA gave raises and bonuses
to the three men in the league office who oversee the referee
operations department.

“I just thought that was an unfortunate low blow that they’re
attempting to do in order to create media spin and I guess to
try to get fans to not sympathize with our plight,” McMorris
said.

Stern has said the league is trying to bring the referees’
budget in line with other departments.

“The proposals we have made to the NBRA are extraordinarily fair
and reasonable, given the current economic circumstances,”
Buchanan said. “Since late 2008, the league and our teams have
made far deeper cuts in non-referee headcount and expenses than
we are asking for here.”

The first preseason game is scheduled for Oct. 1 at Utah. The
NBA hasn’t used replacement referees since early in the 1995-96
season.

“We’re the ones who have given back money, put money back on the
table,” McMorris said. “I just don’t know what else we can do.”