Well, not all stars per se, but I think that after every regular season players and coaches should vote for their all NBA 1st, 2nd and 3rd team for referees. Each "team" or crew would comprise three refs. The 1st team, meaning the best three refs from the regular season, are awarded with reffing the finals and get a salary bonus. The other all NBA refs get smaller bonuses and obviously ref playoff series. Voting can take place about a week before the season ends I suppose.

This would at least help get rid of the notion held by many fans that the NBA assigns certain refs against or for specific teams in order to sway results. Quite simply this rids the commissioner's office of this responsibility, which they should embrace with open arms in my opinion.

I realize that some players and coaches may vote for reasons that could be considered "non basketball" related, like maybe they just get along with certain refs better. But that's okay, I think. Not all refs get along with everybody the same and getting along with players and coaches probably means they respect you anyway. I also think most would actually vote seriously and put real thought into it. I think most players and coaches would really try voting for who they think is the fairest, most effective ref.

If there is one problem here, it's probably that some will feel that you're letting the inmates run the asylum. I get that. But when these three refs voted in by players and coaches are reffing the finals, then the players and coaches wouldn't be able to say or complain much about it because they voted them in.

It's a win for the players and coaches, who get to pick the best, fairest judges for themselves (yay democracy). The league wins because it rids itself of the "crooked" refs, influenced games stigma, and the refs win because they get rewarded, both monetarily and with some amount of prestige and recognition, for being good at their very difficult jobs.

Any thoughts?