Development Assistance RespawnEvent is not being registered

I am trying to add an item into a players inventory on respawn, and I can't figure out why it's not working. Here's the part of the code related to the issue and the error log on respawn.
Error log: http://pastebin.com/AKeZQmjR
Code: http://pastebin.com/eAmxVKQv

 

Bump!

 

@Tut Well 'item' is probably null... Please post all code from all relevant classes.

 

Why would the error occur if there is a null check?

 

@Tut .... You can't just do ItemStack item;

Hes right its obviously going to return null, you never declared what the ItemStack was. Do you want it to be dirt? Define what you want.
You are testing if the item is not null, it obviously will be if you don't declare what it is beforehand.

 

It's being defined in another class.

 

@Tut Yes it is after you check if it is null. Define it before you check if it is null.

 

Oh. Whoops. There we go. I'll ask if anything more goes to shit.