The National Basketball Referees Association has issued a statement on their official Twitter account in light of the NBA’s decision to suspend referee Courtney Kirkland for one week following his role in the incident involving Golden State Warriors guard Shaun Livingston.
We regret the recent incident between Courtney Kirkland and Shaun Livingston. The NBRA has reached out to the National Basketball Players Association to explore ways to improve on-court communications and civility.
Livingston was ejected for making contact with an official during the Warriors' game against the New Orleans Pelicans. However, the NBA found that Kirkland shared responsibility in making contact with Livingston’s head by moving toward the Warriors player.
It was clear to see that Kirkland did deserve to be reprimanded for how he reacted toward Livingston. Although being a referee is hard because of the verbal abuse they often take from players, it is still not an excuse for them to show any sort of aggression toward players.
Hopefully, this incident will actually lead to constructive communication between the referees’ association and the players’ association in terms of how to better improve the working relationship between the two sides so as to avoid another repeat of the Kirkland-Livingston incident.
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