Refs can blow whistle, not spittle
League adds black bag to catch officials’ saliva
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The NBA believes it has considered every possible way they can make the rest of the season as safe as possible.
That even included a plan to contain referee spittle.
Referees at the NBA and WNBA restarts are using the same whistles as they always have — albeit with one subtle but important addition. A small black bag is being slipped onto each whistle, designed to collect any spittle that might emanate from a referee’s mouth and through the device itself when being used during play.
“With health and wellness being in the forefront of everything that we’re doing here in the bubble at Disney, we wanted to make sure that we had something in place for the whistles,” said Monty McCutchen, the former NBA referee who is now a league vice president overseeing the referee program. “In what used to be a normal world, we didn’t worry about what came out of a whistle spittle or moisture or a mist or any combination of those was not a concern for us. It is now, and it needs to be.”
Whistles aren’t just whistles, not at this level. They’re hightech, made by Fox 40 — the company that provides whistles to the NFL and NHL, among other sports organizations — and calibrated to work with Precision Time by using radio technology to communicate between the referee and the scorer’s table to instantly stop the clock when blown.
The NBA ran plenty of testing to ensure that the baggies — which are washable and reusable — would not thwart that system. The baggie attaches with Velcro and works whether a referee wants to wear the whistle on a lanyard or keep it hand-held.
Referee Zach Zarba said it took some getting used to, but by the midway point of his first scrimmage at Walt Disney World he didn’t even notice the baggie.
“You’re not going to get any referee to complain about being back to work and the guidelines and health and safety go along with that,” Zarba said. “We’re all for it. And if this keeps people safer, it’s a no-brainer. The innovation and attention to detail out here, soup to nuts, is impressive.” ■ The last scrimmages are Tuesday at Disney. There are no games Wednesday before the re-opening doubleheader Thursday night, with Utah facing New Orleans and the Lakers meeting the Clippers in the nightcap.