Officiating Group Ends Relationship with Adidas After LaVar Ball Incident

Court Club Elite, which provides referees for the Adidas Uprising Summer Championships, announced Sunday it will terminate its partnership with Adidas after LaVar Ball requested the event remove a female official from a game, which the tournament obliged.

Court Club Elite provided a statement to ESPN.com's Myron Medcalf:

"The events that led to the removal of a female official on Friday are something that shall not and will not be accepted within the officiating community. Adidas and their leadership acted in a manner that does not parallel our views on integrity or professionalism, and neither should be compromised as they were in this situation. It was clear that the actions of the official in enforcing and addressing unsporting behavior were defendable and fitting of the behavior displayed; however, the agenda and lack of courage to do the right thing by Adidas leadership sent a clear message that the game and those chosen to protect the integrity were not of priority."

Ball criticized the female official after the game, arguing she wasn't in shape and didn't have the knowledge necessary to officiate the game, per USA Today's Scott Gleeson:

"If you're going to be qualified, you better be in shape, and you better know the game. And she's bad on both of them. She's not in shape, she's not calling the game right, and she don't understand, so now she's trying to make a name for herself. So she's walking around like, 'I'm the only woman in here.' Yeah, we get it, I don't care if you a woman or a man or whatever, just be good at what you do."

Medcalf reported Friday that officials from Adidas had told officials to avoid issuing technical fouls to Ball because he drew so much attention to the event. A source told Medcalf that the apparel company wanted to "put three officials on the game who will keep him in the building."

Chris Rivers, Adidas' director of global basketball sports marketing, chalked the situation up to a "miscommunication" and added that it's not uncommon in the NBA for certain referees to avoid officiating certain players because of personality clashes, per Medcalf.

The female referee has yet to be identified, but Medcalf wrote that she works in Division I women's basketball.