In the second game, the fifth-seeded Phoenix Mercury faces the eighth-seeded New York Liberty at 10 p.m. In 2014, Lauren Holtkamp-Sterling became the first woman hired as a full-time NBA official in nearly two decades. "In recent years, we have focused on expanding our pipeline of officials to greatly increase the pool of potential hires, and we have seen encouraging results, not only in the NBA but in the WNBA and the G League as well," Adam Silver, who became NBA commissioner in 2014, said to ESPN. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. Entry-level NBA referees earn $250,000 per year as "rookies." To its credit, the NBA hasn't been satisfied at simply hitting numerical targets for the sake of appearance -- although no one's saying it's been perfect, either. Thirteen of the 31 referees in the WNBA are women. 2020. Natalie Sago and Jenna Schroeder have made NBA history as the first female referees to work on the same court. In its . Mosher has . ET. Cheryl Flores and Dannica Mosher have been promoted to the level of full-time staff officials, the NBA said Thursday. They congratulated me for getting hired and being in the WNBA, I was like, thats crazy because I was watching you guys when I was 12 years old and now were working together.. Grasping it entirely is a struggle. Even while on maternity leave, shes locked into games every single night, which now she gets to do with her son by her side. The first female NBA referees. So my predecessors recognized this and put those seeds into the G League. None attempt to discount their own burdens that they overcame. "I always had that mentor, a role model on how to be successful in a male-dominated field," Schroeder said. Today, though, this is frankly the bare minimum; no one in the league office is patting themselves on the back for simply keeping up with the times. "Once or twice a week in the summer, we would get on a Skype call and spend an hour or two hours talking rules, talking scenarios, situations. Effectively the glue for a crew through consistency, teamwork, and communication - makes partners better by carrying a larger portion of the crew's load than an Umpire. "I'll prove myself amongst them, so they'll look at me as just a referee," Palmer said of her mindset at the time. Moyer-Gleich officiated three seasons in the NBA G League, including the 2018 playoffs. "And it's even better when the things they see are possible look like them.". The article is made available for educational use by individuals. Senior-level referees are the best of the best. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The referees had to be ready and so did the players, coaches and fans. Referee Eric Brewton during the game between the Las Vegas Aces and Connecticut Sun in Game Three of the Semifinals of the 2020 WNBA Playoffs on. During one year of Schroeders journey, she worked seven days a week for six months straight. Listed is the 2021 WNBA roster of officials, along with their number. As WWE's New Day would say, shame! NBA.com is part of Warner Media, LLCs Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network, *Translations are limited to select pages, Miller making history as female G League GM, Women referees among latest called up to work games, Female officials Q&A Part 1: Path to the NBA, Female officials Q&A Part 2: Womens empowerment, Ex-NBA player Morrow facing assault charges, Durant passes 'Big O' for 13th in career points, NBA Fantasy: Under-the-radar additions for playoffs, Magic's Isaac (torn adductor) out for rest of season, Triple-double win streak shows Jokic dominance, NBA DFS Picks: Yahoo plays and strategy for March 3. Flores has spent nine seasons in the G League and 10 in the WNBA, and is also an accomplished womens college referee with two Final Fours on her resume. She's taken it to a new level. In 1997, Violet Palmer and Dee . Jelks becomes the seventh female full-time ref in NBA history, with the current five preceded by Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer. 2 min read. Tom Washington, a 30-year veteran whom Palmer names as one of her top mentors, bestowed the nickname "Queen" upon her during a group event midway through her career. WNBA. The NBA has always been a league that prides itself on giving equal opportunity to everyone. Five full-time women in officiating today eclipses the total of the NFL, MLB and NHL combined. Its just fantastic. Subscribe to get the Referee.com Review every week plus periodic free training and special offers on the sports you officiate. Fahy walked into Ndour during the second quarter while looking in the opposite direction . I wanted to do as many games as I could to prepare me to work in the NBA. According to a warrant for Morrow's arrest, he's facing charges of assault by strangulation, second-degree kidnapping and communicating threats. Certainly not. Holtkamp-Sterling, now 40, had just finished officiating a youth boy's game as the solo referee. Although there's no word on what their yearly raise looks like, after three to five years of working as an entry-level referee, officials are eligible to be promoted to the next level. Rules, interpretations, mechanics, philosophies and other information may or may not be correct for the current year. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Today, there are five full-time women referees in the NBA -- the most in the . "I feel very grateful that there were people before me to have experienced the initial pushback of what it's like being a female in a male-driven world," Jelks said. MLB umpires rake in an impressive $300,000 annually, and the referees in the NHL receives around $275,000 . Natalie Sago says her time officiating games in the WNBA prepared her for an NBA officiating job. Six women referees took part in the . $425. A native of Cleveland, a city she describes as being filled with underdog energy and soul, her family relocated to the suburbs where Jelks, like many teenagers, yearned to fit in among her peers. Strides are being made, even if we're still talking about small percentages of the overall population and more work is clearly needed. The salary slab of referees is decided as per their experience. Below is the 2020-21 NBA roster of officials with each official's uniform number, name, years in the league through last season and hometown. Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. With no big distinguishable difference between the referee pay for men and women, it's still clear that being a referee is a high-paying job. Career Explorer Guide also estimated . The first category is WNBA referees, the second is entry-level referees and the third is the top of the line senior referees the best of the best. #24 Scott, #77 Lane, #17 Sterling After seeing an overwhelmingly male-dominated officiating staff through the late 1990s and early 2000s, fans began to notice more female referees. According to Career Trend, WNBA referees earn a base salary of $180,000 per year. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. Today, there are a total of five full-time women NBA referees, an all-time league high. Maj Forsberg, who came from Denmark and played for the Rainbow Wahine from 1996-2000, sat behind . McCutchen has long said that the NBA will hire the best people to fill the job, regardless of gender. Who will win nationals? WNBA announces officials for WNBA Playoffs 2021 presented by Google, WNBA Draft 2023 presented by State Farm to be held on April 10, NBA legend Pau Gasol named recipient of 2023 Kobe & Gigi Bryant WNBA Advocacy Award, WNBAs streaming platform, WNBA League Pass, to include 2023 Athletes Unlimited basketball games, First-ever WNBA Canada game to feature Sky and Lynx in Toronto, Defending WNBA champion Aces to host AT&T WNBA All-Star 2023, DICKS Sporting Goods becomes Official Sporting Goods Retail Partner of the WNBA. (Prior to entering the league, Palmer worked as a referee in NCAA Division I women's basketball.) Referee Kevin Fahy on Sunday ejected Astou Ndour of the WNBA 's Chicago Sky after she appeared to accidentally make contact with his stomach as he walked into her. Although she considers herself a basketball junkie, the former collegiate softball player is also a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan and follows the sport closely. Women's Euros. Floyd Mayweather interested in buying NBA team, Blake Griffin trolled by YouTuber courtside. "Those girls get to see me on this platform, working with men in a male-dominated field.". Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. The 2022-23 Stanford Cardinal women's basketball team will represent Stanford University during the 2022-23 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. Well-known referees on the high end are individuals like Tony Brothers and of course, Scott Foster who Chris Paul is all too familiar with. This is the league's . This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It was early in Holtkamp-Sterling's young basketball officiating career, years before she'd ascend to the NBA level. She worked the 2013 and 2014 NBA G League Finals and the 2014 WNBA Conference Finals. The NBA feels very strongly that this should be a meritocracy. You can talk about the girl in the fifth row with the big ta-tas! Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Top 5 NBA female referees in the game today 1) Lauren Holtkamp . When we see one referee get some type of accolade, we highlight it on our pages on social media. To that effect, there have been real efforts toward promoting equality and diversity within the officiating ranks, the sort that may not make headlines but truly advance a progressive agenda. Natalie Sago, 31, a 2018 addition to the league, had a birthright motivating her: Her father, Dr. Shelton Sago, was a 35-year high school official in Missouri, a local legend in both basketball and football. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting. I'm good, I'll tell you whether or not she's cute!' Palmer and Kantner smashed this barrier; those who came after them are trying to stomp on its remains. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". And if it were male officials, you wouldnt call them sensitive.. The first category of referees we're going to be looking at is WNBA referees. Several of the full-timers are close friends off the court. Referee data is available for the 1988-89 through 2022-23 seasons. Copyright 2023 NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Simone Jelks, the first Black woman hired in this role since Palmer herself, was also one of several women to attend Palmer's yearly refereeing camps before reaching the NBA level (such camps are common in the refereeing world, both for development and scouting; Palmer's is open to all collegiate officials). Palmer's focus was internal. "It's almost normal now. Boger is the only referee to retire this offseason. As a proud Black and LGBTQ woman, Palmer especially was a barrier-breaker in more ways than one. And as the first to reach this plateau since, she's turned around and served a similarly important role for those following her. There was an error submitting your subscription. ncaa home, women, post season history: men, women 2022-23 2021-22 2020-21 2019-20 2018-19 NCAA Women Referee Leaders. Holtkamp officiated six seasons in the NBA G League and four seasons in the WNBA. They allow the league's scouts to evaluate larger swaths of the population and identify greater cumulative talent. "They congratulated me for getting hired and being in the WNBA, I was like, that . Schroeder said she'd love to see her daughter take up officiating when she grows up -- although she joked her wife, Anderson, may represent the more lucrative career path as a physician. With more female referees officiating games, fans have begun to wonder if there's a pay gap between female referees and male referees. As far as WNBA referees, they make considerably less. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The league is ahead of its peers here, although progress must be viewed relatively. She heard whispers from some corners of the sport. She will return for her 10th season in the WNBA, all of which have been in Phoenix, after she missed last year because of a 10-month detainment in Russia. And as McCutchen points out, 42% of G League referees are women. -. . Add onto that insurance, retirement plans and the opportunity to travel the country for free, it's no wonder referees stick around for the long haul. There aren't many great answers for why 17 years passed between women being hired, for instance, although it's understandable why those at the top of today's league prefer to look forward. Palmer and Kantner were so much more than just trailblazers; the weight they shouldered eased the burden for all who came after. presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution To amplify your resume, you can try to get involved with your school's basketball team as either a student manager, player or referee assistant if possible. He . Back then, Palmer hardly had time to consider the significance of her accomplishment. She struggled at times with the constant demands from those she encountered, both stated and implied, to justify herself or explain her pursuit of success in a heavily male-dominated field. Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. Before joining the big-league ranks, Natalie Sago was a ref for the G-League and WNBA. Note: This article is archival in nature. Palmer broke barriers in 1997 when she became the first female to referee an NBA game. During the 2021-22 NFL season, the . "She did it way before all of us, before the world we live in now that's all accepting," Moyer-Gleich said of Kantner. So, we make mistakes out there on the floor, but the main thing is we have to just move on and reset., For me, if something goes wrong or if I can do something better, I look at the clock, then memorize the time on the game clock and time on the shot clock and just reset.. The Orlando forward played only 11 games this season after missing two years with a torn ACL. Those who followed them still faced real challenges. They're just talking about something they're uncomfortable with.". "[He] confronted me and told me I didn't belong there, working that game," Holtkamp-Sterling recounted years later. | Subscribe to access all D1 ref data. Weve all been rookies, whether youre a coach, a player or a referee. Flores and Mosher earned promotions from the G League level, as did another pair of new hires Matt Kallio, who becomes the NBAs first international full-time official, and Robert Hussey. NCAA gymnastics 2023: Who has surprised this season? THE FIRST NBA INDIAN ORIGIN REFEREES JOURNEY FROM PRE-MED TO PRE-REF, NBRA ANNOUNCES RATIFICATION OF AGREEMENT FOR G LEAGUE START OF SEASON, While Turners arms are vertical, he is jumping A to B into the path of Brown. She also enjoys Bikram yoga and swimming. Lifelong bonds have been formed within this group. 3 Nick Buchert, Smithfield, Ky., 10. Adding women to the refereeing positions has been a priority for McCutchen and other NBA executives, including Commissioner Adam Silver. $18K. There's no jealousy here, no bitterness over an "easier" path faced by today's young women. Please logout and login again. All that self-affirmation has finally come full circle. Those changes include separate dedicated locker rooms for women officials. Sago was a collegiate athlete but played softball instead of basketball. She served as a WNBA referee in 2018. And to this day, I dont think people know that thats actually a thing.. And despite having to transcend this gendered space, the officials recognize that the job of refereeing is not actually gendered work. Everything we send is officiating specific because that's all we do. After playing college basketball in Millersville, Pennsylvania, Ashley Moyer decided to pursue a career in officiating.