Referees

Chairs, water bottles and fists, ungloved ones, flew in Ring B at the Olympic boxing arena Thursday morning when outraged South Koreans attacked a referee. The mini-riot broke out seconds after Bulgaria's Alexander Hristov had been awarded a 4-1 decision over South Korea's Byun Jong-il. A South Korean coach and a team manager entered the ring first, the team manager grabbing the referee, Keith Walker of New Zealand, by the arm and shouting in his face.

Greg Willard Longtime NBA referee worked more than 1,600 games Greg Willard, 54, a longtime NBA referee who worked more than 1,600 games before he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer , died Monday at his home in Huntington Beach, according to NBA spokesman Tim Frank. Willard was diagnosed with the illness during last season's playoffs and worked only one more game, a Lakers exhibition at the Honda Center in October. Moments of silence to honor him were planned at all NBA games Tuesday and Wednesday.

The lead negotiator and spokesman for the NBA's referees union said Thursday a lockout appears "imminent and unavoidable" following the latest breakdown in talks. Lamell McMorris said the officials made another $1 million in concessions in their proposal, but they believe it's evident the league is not interested in further discussions. The officials then headed home after spending the last 24 hours meeting in Chicago. "It's become evident that the league would not be interested in continuing conversation at this time," McMorris said.

Writers from around Tribune Co. discuss the topic. Feel free to join the conversation with a comment of your own. Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times They ought to call them technicality fouls the way the NBA is handing out technicals willy-nilly. When Mr. Nice Guy, a.k.a. Kevin Durant, ranks No. 2 in the league in technical fouls, it might be a pretty good indication that things have gotten out of hand. The next thing you know, Durant will get a technical for kissing his mother before games.

The NBA has fined Mark Cuban $50,000 for making critical Twitter comments about league officiating. The Dallas Mavericks owner was unhappy after the Mavericks lost to the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday and tweeted: "Im sorry NBA fans. Ive tried for 13 years to fix the officiating in this league and I have failed miserably. Any Suggestions ? I need help. " The Mavericks were called for 20 fouls in the game, the Hornets 10. Cuban is no stranger to fines. The latest assessment pushes his total to about $1.8 million in fines since he bought the Mavs in 2000.

NBA referees are prepared to be locked out for the start of the season after negotiations with the league on a new contract broke down this week when Commissioner David Stern ended the latest bargaining session. No further talks are scheduled -- and when they do resume, it'll be without the commissioner. Referees spokesman Lamell McMorris accused Stern of acting childish and not negotiating in good faith, so Stern removed himself from the process. Stern said Thursday he told McMorris that, "In fact, if it was going to get personal -- which apparently he's decided to make it by calling news media and leveling a series of inaccurate allegations -- that I would absent myself from the negotiations, which I have.

Until he sent everyone home early in Atlantic City, N.J., two Fridays ago, referee Randy Neumann hadn't been heard from since becoming the answer to one of boxing's trivia questions. The question: Who is the only fighter ever to lose on cuts to Chuck (the Bayonne Bleeder) Wepner? It happened in 1974. Neumann and Wepner fought several times, but on this occasion it was for the New Jersey heavyweight championship.

Note to NFL: You know you are in trouble when even the Lingerie Football League is making fun of you. Mitch Mortaza, commissioner of the LFL (which is exactly what it sounds like: Women in lingerie playing football), took a shot at the NFL on Tuesday when he said one of the NFL's replacement referees had been fired by the Lingerie League a year ago because of incompetence. Mortaza was speaking specifically of Craig Ochoa, a replacement official hired by the NFL. Ochoa was an official during an NFL preseason game and is on call as an alternate during the regular season.

Field judge Pat Mallette had to leave the Minnesota Vikings-San Francisco 49ers playoff game in the first quarter Saturday after colliding with a player on Joe Montana's 72-yard touchdown pass play to Jerry Rice. Mallette lay on the turf for about a minute and walked to the locker room with an injury to his left shoulder. He was replaced by alternate Don Dorkowski. Mallette was following Rice into the end zone and was hit around the 10-yard-line.

It has long been the notion here that you can never stop a prizefight too soon, only too late. There are some fights that should have been stopped before they were started. They stopped Benny (Kid) Paret's fight with Emile Griffith one lifetime too late, for example. The list is long of pugilists who went ignorantly to their executions, who would be alive today if the referee were less full of fight. A crowd is bloodthirsty. It abhors a cease-fire.

Referee Billy Kennedy crashed through the fourth wall on Wednesday evening. During a live broadcast of the Lakers vs. San Antonio game on ESPN, the team's coaches gathered around Kennedy to find out why there was a delay in restarting play after a break. It looked as though they were discussing something fairly serious -- but that notion was quickly debunked. "TV went to a 20[-second timeout], thought that it was going to be a 20," Kennedy told the coaches. "All right, so what I'm doing right now is I'm stalling.

Midway through the fourth quarter of the Lakers' visit to San Antonio to play the Spurs on Wednesday night, the game inexplicably halted with 5:09 left on the clock. Apparently, there was some confusion regarding available timeouts and television advertising, as described by referee Bill Kennedy in a clip that was obviously not intended to air on the ESPN broadcast. Kennedy explains to coaches Mike D'Antoni and Gregg Popovich he's "stalling. I'm stalling for commercial time.

The NBA has fined Mark Cuban $50,000 for making critical Twitter comments about league officiating. The Dallas Mavericks owner was unhappy after the Mavericks lost to the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday and tweeted: "Im sorry NBA fans. Ive tried for 13 years to fix the officiating in this league and I have failed miserably. Any Suggestions ? I need help. " The Mavericks were called for 20 fouls in the game, the Hornets 10. Cuban is no stranger to fines. The latest assessment pushes his total to about $1.8 million in fines since he bought the Mavs in 2000.

In a game Wednesday between the Brooklyn Nets and the Toronto Raptors, NBA referee Courtney Kirkland ran at Kris Humphries as the Nets forward is about to shoot a free throw in the fourth quarter. Humphries took two dribbles, lined up, and was about to release when Kirkland  jumped toward him with his hands in the air, forcing Humphries to stop his momentum just as he's about to shoot. Maybe Kirkland is a huge Kim Kardashian fan, and when he saw  Humphries standing by his lonesome at the free throw line, he couldn't contain himself.

Conference call, the sequel. Or the ongoing saga of the coin toss. … On Saturday, UCLA won the toss and believed it had deferred to the second half. Referees interpreted that as UCLA choosing to kick off, and Arizona State got the ball to start the game and to start the second half. On Monday, the Pac-12 said that a conference official met with Athletic Director Dan Guerrero at halftime and explained that the referees had acted properly. The official brought the same message to Mora postgame, according to a conference official.

About the best thing that can be said about Monday's presidential debate in Boca Raton, Fla., is that it's the last one. In theory, debates should represent a terrific opportunity for voters to assess the competing arguments and policies of presidential candidates. It's a nice theory, but that's not what we were presented with Tuesday night, nor in the first debate. What I heard, over and over again, was a lot of barking: One candidate barks out statistics or obscure references to his opponent's record or statements, followed by return barking to the effect that it's all a pack of lies.

A referee who had a heart attack during the East Carolina-Syracuse football game remained hospitalized in serious condition. A nursing supervisor at University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y., on Sunday would not elaborate on Gerry Bram's health. The 49-year-old back judge for Conference USA collapsed near midfield in the fourth quarter Saturday. Syracuse team physician Irving Raphael said Bram was unconscious and barely breathing on his own when rescue workers began shocking his heart.

Week 4 of the NFL season is here, and the games continue to get more interesting. In Friday's Google+ hangout with Mark Thompson, formerly the Mark part of KLOS' dynamic morning duo, and Times NFL columnist Sam Farmer, topics include the return of regular officials and a review of Thursday night's  Browns-Ravens game as well as a look at top matchups and story lines for the weekend. Farmer admitted he'd "never seen anything like it" when the fans in Baltimore cheered for the return of the regular officials.

Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado engaged in a fight-of-the-year slugfest at Home Depot Center on Saturday night, with Oxnard's Rios notching a seventh-round technical knockout that proves he retains wallop while moving up in weight. Nonito Donaire couldn't match the nonstop brawling of that bout, but he did take another step toward standing as the world's top super-bantamweight with a ninth-round technical knockout of Japan's Toshiaki Nishioka. Former lightweight champion Rios, in his junior-welterweight debut, unleashed a pair of hard overhand rights in the seventh, then pounded two lefts onto Alvarado's mug to force referee Pat Russell to stop the fight at the 1:57 mark.

Dwight Howard's comedy tour continues. This time it didn't involve voice imitations or recycled iPhone jokes -- the joshing involved the NBA's new rule penalizing players with fines of up to $30,000 and possible suspensions for excessive flopping. Howard hardly sounded interested in adding fine money to the NBA Cares charity fund, but he changed his tune when he realized the new rule gave him an opportunity to rectify a charging call Lakers Coach Mike Brown called on him as he went up against Steve Nash during Wednesday's practice.