Amidst all the trouble between players and referees, the Portland Trail Blazers hired Don Vaden, a former Director of Officials for the WNBA and an NBA referee for 15 years, in a consulting role to “help educate the team on rules of the game and officiating”.

The Oregonian's Mike Richman reported the Blazers announced the hire on Friday.  The hire became official just yesterday, but Vaden has worked with the Blazers roster and coaching staff since the start of 2018. The Blazers were looking for a formal relationship with Vaden since last summer, but before doing it Vaden had to step away from his director position.

This is not the first time a team hires a veteran referee as a consultant, as the Rockets have done it before. The Blazers are the first team to contact Vaden, who said he is also open to working with other teams.

Vaden said he tries to help the team as much as possible with his experience as he also learns:

“I try to go to all their practices, all their meetings and I listen to what's going on because this is completely different for me; the Xs and Os of the game and trying to figure that piece out and how I can help them or anybody.”

The experienced referee has spoken to and worked with several Blazers players and calls they get – or not – in the court. Vaden explained to Ed Davis why he gets called for offensive fouls and how can he avoid them, he spoke with Damian Lillard about the best way of drawing 3-point shooting fouls, and encouraged rookie Zach Collins to keep playing vertical defense despite getting calls against him early in his career. Vaden said about Collins:

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“I kept telling him. ‘You're okay. You're doing what's right. Continue to jump straight up. The more (referees) get to see you doing that the more they become used to you doing that and they'll start rewarding you.'”

It is good to see at least one team is trying to do something about the player-official issues by educating players in a better matter instead of just complaining about officiating after every game.