The Summer Pro League Gives Veteran Officials a Chance to Sharpen Their Skills While the Rookies Learn How It’s Done in the NBA : Refs Go to Camp

As the veterans shuffle about the basketball court in the Summer Pro League at Loyola Marymount University, the younger pros and rookies watch closely, learning.

Not about passing or dunking but about flying elbows, three-second violations and illegal defenses.

These pros casting the watchful eyes are basketball officials.

Thirteen National Basketball Assn. referees are in uniform to help call the action for the league’s 3 1/2-week session, which ends Aug. 13 with two tournament championship games.

In roles nearly identical to the those of the players, the referees have goals: The vets are signed to keep rust off their game; the younger zebras are in town to show NBA league-office types that they are improving and should be looked at closely when promotions come along, and the non-NBA referees are involved for the experience, to make contacts or just to pick up useful tips.

“It’s similar (to the motivation for players),” said Larry Creger, president of the summer league and a former NBA assistant coach and scout. “(Detroit Pistons) Isiah Thomas, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, they aren’t in town to get jobs. They’ve got them, but they’re just here to improve. And like them, there are several refs in the league, but they (referees) can still improve.”

The league gives the referees a replica of an NBA game. The rules, 24-second clock and three-point circle are identical; several of the players make their living in the NBA. The gym and crowd sizes, however, are substandard and the quality of play is not equal, due to limited participation by many of the NBA’s elite players.

Hugh Hollins, a veteran NBA referee who officiated the 1987 all-star game in Seattle and worked the NBA finals last spring, views the league as perfect for an official’s development.

“Last year I worked here just to keep in shape,” Hollins said. “The setting is almost like an NBA game. It’s a little looser, and you don’t get a (negative) reaction from the fans unless the home team is playing. The players and coaches are the same (as in the NBA).”

The league, which plays its games at Loyola’s Gersten Pavilion, is somewhat of a boot camp for the pro players. NBA stars like Thomas, Salley, Rodman and Los Angeles Laker Byron Scott are playing to keep in peak form during the NBA’s dormant summer months.

Athletes like Derrick Gervin, brother of former NBA great George Gervin, Michael Young and Darren Queenan have been kicking around the Continental Basketball Assn. or in leagues overseas. They are trying to secure invitations to pro tryout camps. Their chances are scarce--much like the chances of a CBA ref getting an opportunity to ascend to the NBA.

“I am a long shot,” says Bernie Hendricks, a college official in South Dakota and Iowa who is looking to hook on with the CBA, an unofficial minor league system to the NBA for players and referees. “But the fact that I’m here means there is a little bit of hope.”

If the refs here don’t get better jobs, says Hendricks, then at least the league will help them get better at their jobs.

“This place helps a whole lot,” Hendricks said. “It gives you a much broader understanding of officiating. I worked in a college system, and the pro officials are just unbelievable. These guys are so smart they remember everything, and watching those guys work makes you concentrate more when you do it.”

To help referees work out the kinks in their officiating, every league game is videotaped and reviewed by the officials and their colleagues. Pointers are then exchanged.

The emphasis on helping gain experience during the summer leagues--Loyola’s is one of three each summer that use NBA refs--has long been in place. But when a third floor official was added before last season, the league was forced to add 18 referees. Twelve, says Hollins, came out of the college ranks, with limited experience working pro games. Many familiarized themselves with the style at Loyola’s League last year.

“The teams see this camp as a place to look at their draft choices, their rookies, and that’s what we (officials) do,” Hollins said. “Toward the end of the (summer league) season we start putting the best of the officiating groups together, just like during the regular season. We put our best people on the top teams.”

Nearly all of the NBA’s top officials have taken part in summer leagues, and likewise nearly all of the top players.

From an officiating standpoint, says Hollins, the importance of the league at Loyola cannot be understated.

“Where would we be without it? Oh, my God, I tell you, we would be in bad shape. We really would.”