Full-time focus: NBL lifting the bar for officials

The Hungry Jack's NBL has long been known as an exceptional place for players, particularly Australians and New Zealanders, to continue their development, and the same philosophy extends to the League's officials.

In a recent NBL media availability, Head of Referees Scott Butler outlined the strategy in place to recruit and develop the next generation of referees.

"We are looking for officials to work on a full-time basis," Butler said.

"You probably can appreciate one of the challenges is that a lot of the officials, who are already in the casual contractor pool, already have very responsible careers.

"They're locked into those careers, and it's very difficult to get them out of that into full-time officiating.

"So, I look around the world, around Europe, and South America, and obviously in North America, for officials who can come across and work with our team and complement our team.

"I work with both Ronnie Nunn [former NBA Director of Officials] and Richard Stokes [Director of EuroLeague officiating], who help me scout referees around the world, and we look at their fit for the game and what type of leagues they're working in at their various locations.

"We want to make sure that they pass the good person test as well. Once we know they're a good person, then that's effectively the recruitment process."

While the League embraces the international flavour and experience its overseas officials bring, Butler reiterated its commitment to building a pathway for up-and-coming local referees.

"100 per cent; if we could [have the majority of the League we Australian and New Zealand officials] we would," Butler said.

"The various programs we work on in our development pipeline, Michael [Aylen] plays a very critical part [in that].

"We have referees across both countries that we're observing, 12 months a year across the various things that work.

"If we could have more officials from that pipeline go into the full-time model, that would be perfect."

The NBL resumes on Wednesday night with an Ignite Cup double-header, tipping off with New Zealand hosting Cairns at Spark Arena from 5.30pm AEST, live on ESPN.