FanHouse Joel Litvin

Much like the players and coaches are expected to do, the gamblers around the country are sure to try and use the replacement referees at NBA games to their advantage.

Although legalized betting on exhibition games -- that begin tonight with replacements -- is expected to be minimal, those in the gambling industry will be scrutinizing the new officials closely in hopes of seeing tendencies and trends that they can use in both wagering and setting point spreads for regular season games.

"The bettors may be a little leery of the new refs at the start, but they'll be out there analyzing, looking for patterns they can use,'' said Richard Gardner, sports book manager for BODOG, the on-line sports betting site. "It's like a chess game (with the gamblers). I'll be looking for trends myself. It's definitely something to keep an eye on.''

Joel Litvin, NBA president of league and basketball operations, said Tuesday that the league is much better prepared to open the season with replacement officials than it was in 1995, the last time they were used.

The NBA last week locked out its regular referees after failing to negotiate a new contract with their union, turning instead to replacements that will begin training camp Thursday in New York.

"This is a far different situation than it was the last time,'' Litvin told FanHouse. "Frankly, this is not the easiest situation to be in, but we've got the structure in place to make it a smoother transition.''

While the basketball-loving world is completely distracted by the start of free agency, the NBA quietly tried to sneak a relatively major development under the radar. They've created the office of Senior Vice President, Referee Operations to oversee (wait for it ...) all things pertaining to referees, including "recruiting, training and development, scheduling, data management and analysis and work rules enforcement."

Those responsibilities previously fell on the shoulders of Stu Jackson, the league's VP of Basketball Operations, but the NBA is clearly hoping that the creation of a new office will convince everyone that officiating decisions are not being made by the same people whose job it is to ensure the game stays competitive and marketable. The office will report to NBA president Joel Litvin, David Stern's right-hand man.

So who is heading up the new position? U.S. Army Major General Ronald Johnson, who has 32 years of combat engineering experience and recently retired from heading up the Army Corps of Engineers. Is that outside the box enough for you?

Johnson admittedly has no basketball experience outside of being a fan, but no one can deny that someone with his resume has the ability to train, manage and lead large groups of people in mission critical projects. After helping coordinate billion dollar reconstruction efforts in Iraq, surely making sure that a couple of guys with whistles know to stand in the right spot to see the difference between a blocking foul and a charge will be a cake walk, right? Here's to hoping that's the case.