NBA Refs, Preseason, and Contract Extensions

It was announced today that the NBA and it's officials have come to terms on a two-year agreement . After spending the entire preseason with replacement refs, the league will have the real officials for opening night next week. Thinking back to last year, it's hard to imagine replacements could be much worse than the original officials, but it was a nightmare.

Here's what Stern had to say about the agreement:

"We are pleased to reach this agreement. 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."

With the end of the replacement refs, comes the end of the preseason. I've never in my life felt like the preseason was more ridiculous than this year in Portland. Speculation, rumors, and inaccuracies have created a negative atmosphere in Rip City. No one should have said anything bad about Andre Miller.

Unless Miller came into the regular season and played poorly or was out of shape, ridiculing a guy in the preseason is just a waste of time.

Plus every game seemed to be magnified as fans and media were worried about Brandon Roy's play, when it was no concern whatsoever. I've never been happier for the preseason to end and the regular season to begin. When games matter, and the players know it, that's when we start making real assessments about this team.

For now, the Blazers are 0-0 and wins and losses can't happen until Tuesday.

The good news during this time of bad officiating and frankly bad preseason basketball? LaMarcus Aldridge signed a hefty five-year extension with the Trail Blazers. This is tremendous news for Portland as I've said before. You can watch the press conference and get caught up.

For me, Aldridge has always been sort of a wild card for the organization. Roy has increased his production and been steadily great since day one, but Aldridge is different. His ceiling might actually be higher, and we haven't seen his potential yet. I've said before that Aldridge will be my breakout player .

I think he's the type of guy who performs better when he has his contract as opposed to working for a new contract. His maturation is right on pace, I can't wait to see him in his home state of Texas come All-Star weekend.

Then of course, on a much lighter note, Casey Holdahl who Tweets for the Trail Blazers and runs the Center Court blog , took this photo of the new Blazer banner on the grain silo outside of the Rose Garden, It's beautiful.