The NBA's roster of female referees continues to grow. Several of the full-timers are close friends off the court. Scott has spent much of her first year in the league building rapport with the players and teams. Women's Euros. The Pennsylvania native has four years of collegiate officiating experience, with stints in the ACC, Atlantic 10, Patriot League and Ivy League, among other conferences. Referee Position. She would love to see the MLB bring women into the umpire ranks, just as the NBA has demonstrated with its own officials throughout the years. may be duplicated, redistributed or manipulated in any form. And if it were male officials, you wouldnt call them sensitive.. "I have always shown great respect for the referees and my career supports me," Ndour wrote on Twitter with a clip of the incident after . Success! She was working a high school AAU tournament one weekend when a bystander approached her with a simple question: Why dont you do this for a living? In addition, referees are paid bonus money for working the playoffs and NBA Finals. But Palmer and Kantner's influence on today's generation is immense and undeniable. "It's needed for women in this industry that already have a lot of things going against them. I think that the NBA is very visual and theyve done a great job of showing that. expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto However, her journey was slightly different from some of her female counterparts. 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. As our numbers are increasing, that sort of noteworthiness is becoming more about this collective experience and collective momentum that is here and thats just really, really rewarding.. Cheryl Flores and Dannica Mosher have been promoted to the level of full-time staff officials, the NBA said Thursday. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. As far as WNBA referees, they make considerably less. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Amy Bonner took up refereeing as a student at the University of Missouri in the early 1990s, calling rec league games, and by 2002 she was officiating games in the NBA's Developmental League. It hits harder now after years of reflection. 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. "And I say that very positively. Chicago Sky centre Astou Ndour was walking down the court in . Cheryl Flores and Dannica Mosher have been promoted to the level of full-time staff officials, the NBA said Thursday. Palmer broke barriers in 1997 when she became the first female to referee an NBA game. After finishing up her studies in physical education at the University of Missouri-St. Lois decided to make her way into a career of reffing basketball. 2023 Getty Images. "[He] confronted me and told me I didn't belong there, working that game," Holtkamp-Sterling recounted years later. G League referee ShaRae Mitchell becomes the 15th woman in NBA history picked to work a regular-season game. 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. Probably. Included aren't just the five women who have achieved full-time NBA status, but also many more working their way up through the G League or WNBA training ranks. Jelks views Palmer as a key mentor in multiple ways. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. She got her professional start in the WNBA, which was a big deal for her because she grew up idolizing players such as Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi. 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. Natalie Sago and Jenna Schroeder have made NBA history as the first female referees to work on the same court. Today, there are a total of five full-time women NBA referees, an all-time league high. Kallio a native of Edmonton, Alberta has seven years of G League experience, five years of WNBA experience and worked the Tokyo Olympics. Flores has spent nine seasons in the G League and 10 in the WNBA, and is also an accomplished women's college referee with two Final Fours on her resume. "She did it way before all of us, before the world we live in now that's all accepting," Moyer-Gleich said of Kantner. Seven women have worked as full-time NBA referees. 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. Danielle Scott decided to join the family business. Here's the 12 hottest female referees on the planet. Despite women entering the professional sports ranks in historically all-male leagues - Jen Welter was an Arizona Cardinals assistant coaching intern this summer, and former WNBA star Becky Hammon . The Pennsylvania native has four years of collegiate officiating experience, with stints in the ACC, Atlantic 10, Patriot League and Ivy League, among other conferences. When shes not working a game or traveling to the next city, the four-year NBA official remains dedicated to the league 24-7 from studying film to communicating with her associates. After playing college basketball in Millersville, Pennsylvania, Ashley Moyer decided to pursue a career in officiating. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. I wanted to do as many games as I could to prepare me to work in the NBA. black lives matter left conservative nfl pride month Trans pro choice gun laws defund the police abortion riots Biden vs Trump America mass shootings blm ant. "I remember learning about Dee and Violet being NBA referees," Holtkamp-Sterling said of her younger self. 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. Both entered the league fully in 1997, and Palmer, now 56, got the honor of making history when she donned the whistle for a late October game that year. According to the National Basketball Association (NBA), this is the first time ever that two female referees officiated the same NBA game. I dont notice whether coaches are hands off. I havent seen any [bullying]. The 15 referees assigned to the 2021 WNBA Playoffs are below: Copyright 2023 NBA Media Ventures, LLC. They were audible conversations for Palmer and Kantner, and sometimes more. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. When Holtkamp-Sterling returned to officiating after giving birth in 2019, the league had arranged specific accommodations for her as its first-ever mother to officiate a game. They all worked between 20 and 26 games as non-staff referees last season. In 1997, Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner became the first women . The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting. New to motherhood another around-the-clock job Moyer-Gleich remembers getting hired in 2018 as the jumping-off point for the league, which has now been a domino effect of more women coming through the officiating pipeline. "Lauren took about six of us under her wing a couple summers ago," Sago said. Back then, Palmer hardly had time to consider the significance of her accomplishment. Rather, they've tried to go further. Fifteen of the largest college conferences paid their male referees on average 22% more than female referees in . The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Referee assignments are posted at approximately 9:00am ET each game day. Today, she is best known for the memes that surfaced after an encounter she had with Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic. . A WNBA referee has been slammed by fans after ejecting a player after the pair appeared to accidentally bump into each other. 2021 Women's National Basketball Association. They allow the league's scouts to evaluate larger swaths of the population and identify greater cumulative talent. Add four from the list of nine part-timers and the share of female refs bumps to 12%. Danielle Scott and Angelica Suffren officiated an NBA Summer League game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat on Tuesday evening. Ex-Rainbow Wahine Maj Forsberg makes mark in WNBA landscape as league's only female crew chief. 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. Its really satisfying to say, We dont have to go and search for women referees, said Monty McCutchen, the NBAs senior vice president, head of referee development and training. The most recent estimations put NBA referees annual salaries between $180,000 and $550,000. And not everyone was comfortable. Holtkamp-Sterling finds comfort in having close working relationships with other NBA officials. Because the Women's National Basketball Association is less successful than the NBA and has a shorter season, WNBA officials earn significantly less than NBA officials. 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. While Palmer and Kantner are no longer working for the NBA, their legacies live on. . "She really did an awesome job of reaching out to us and saying, 'Hey, I really want to start this group. Before becoming an NBA referee, Holtkamp played college basketball at Southwest Missouri State. By accessing any information beyond this page, you agree to abide by the Privacy Policy / Your California Privacy Rights and Terms of Use. Her expediated journey, as she describes, to the NBA began by navigating a very competitive, male-dominated, officiating industry where she quickly moved up the referee ladder. "Once [my peers] saw that I was about the business and the work and wanting to learn the craft, they were more than willing to open themselves up to teach me.". "There's no reason why we shouldn't have more women as officials, coaches and basketball executives in our league," Silver said. Was the buffer Palmer and Kantner created an impenetrable one? Top 5 NBA female referees in the game today 1) Lauren Holtkamp . ncaa home, women, post season history: men, women 2022-23 2021-22 2020-21 2019-20 2018-19 NCAA Women Referee Leaders. any players who have declared for the 2022 WNBA draftincluding seniors, . (See the clip below.) Holtkamp officiated six seasons in the NBA G League and four seasons in the WNBA. After a successful college career, she began working her way up as an official. Not Available. Five women officials is a step up from one or two, but still represents a minuscule percentage of the league's 65 total referees. All that self-affirmation has finally come full circle. According to a warrant for Morrow's arrest, he's facing charges of assault by strangulation, second-degree kidnapping and communicating threats. Depending on experience and how far into the playoffs they're working, officials can reportedly receive a per game bonus of anywhere between $800 to $5,000. To order The three prominent distinctions among the NBA Referees are entry-level referees or rookies, referees for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and senior-level referees. 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). [She's] always been my biggest role model. They're just talking about something they're uncomfortable with.". The first category of referees we're going to be looking at is WNBA referees. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free), Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. The NBA has always been a league that prides itself on giving equal opportunity to everyone. And 25 of the 63 referees in the G-League are women. NEW YORK The WNBA today announced the 15 referees who have earned spots to serve as on-court and/or alternate officials in the WNBA Playoffs 2021 presented by Google. He . Turner is permitted to get to a spot twitter.com/i/web/status/1, TONIGHT You can e-mail himhere, findhis archive hereandfollow him on Twitter. WNBA 2019: Points of Education (Part 3), 2020 WNBA Inside the Rulebook: Block, Charge, WNBA 2020 Playoffs: Points of Education (Part 1), WNBA 2020 Playoffs: Points of Education (Part 2), 2019 WNBA Inside the Rulebook: Continuation. "And it's even better when the things they see are possible look like them.". 2 min read. Last up on the list is Jenna Schroeder. Taking a look at the numbers behind Nikola Jokic's historic season for the Nuggets. Fast forward to 2022, Sago worked the Suns-Bucks game Sunday in Milwaukee, where Phoenix coach Monty Williams dismissed any notion that female refs might cause a games texture or tone to be different. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Instead, the Farmington, Mo., native spent most of her time traveling with her dad, a high school and collegiate basketball referee for 35-plus years, to all of his games and tournaments. Those inside the program aren't the only ones seeing this progress anymore, either. Officiating In Perspective with Barry Mano, 2020 Womens National Basketball Association, 2017 Womens National Basketball Association Roster, 2016 Womens National Basketball Association Roster, Next Level Softball Umpiring Free Email Series, High School Volleyball Officials Quiz 2023. N BA commissioner Adam Silver wants more female referees in the NBA. Simone Jelks worked her first game in the NBA in 2019. Earn a high school diploma. Female referees make a maximum single-game pay of $5,000 if they work the Super Bowl. Each game crew consists of three on-court officials and one on-site alternate. Meet Lauren Holtkamp, Ashley Moyer-Gleich, Natalie Sago, and now Jenna Schroeder. In terms of explaining certain officiating calls during live games, Moyer-Gleich uses her past experience as a player to translate and articulate the rule book into basketball jargon that players and coaches will understand. "Like Vice President Harris, she worked her way to the . I thought that was awesome. Most notably, then-Celtics broadcaster Cedric Maxwell used a stunningly offensive "get back in the kitchen" line for a game Palmer was officiating in 2007 (Maxwell would later apologize). All rights reserved. In March 2015, the NBA began issuing Last Two Minutes reports that detail the performance of referees at the ends of games which the . While top NBA stars such as LeBron James and Steph Curry pocket about $38 million to $40 million annually, the highest-paid WNBA stars don't even broach half a million. The first female NBA referees. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. "We are a very empowered group of women," Jelks said. Any player or coach would be ill-advised to go there. WNBA 2019: Points of Education (Part 2) Professional basketball has broken world barriers by having star players from countless different countries and broken the gender barrier as well. Next up is Simone Jelks, who became the league's seventh full-time female ref in 2019. @BrooklynNets at @celtics I [grew up] admiring Allen Iverson because I felt like he was just so unapologetically himself, despite what society or what the basketball community thought of him, good or bad, says Jelks. But, its hard for someone whos a player to sit down and read the rule book and understand it because its so its not relatable to how a player understands the game.. Schroeder explains the disparities within the NCAA when women officials were not being paid the same as the men and how that growing theme troubled her. Women's . SHARE. $18K. It does not store any personal data. In 2003, she was the main referee for the 2002-03 Women's DFB-Pokal final between 1. In its . No. Flores has spent nine seasons in the G League and 10 in the WNBA, and is also an accomplished women's college referee with two Final Fours on her resume. Before we do, check out a compilation video of every technical foul handed out last season. ET each game day. to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about "I just hope one day we can stop counting. She becomes the sixth woman on the current staff, joining Lauren Holtkamp-Sterling, Ashley Moyer-Gleich, Simone . NEW YORK - NBA G League referees Cheryl Flores, Robert Hussey, Matt Kallio and Dannica Mosher have been promoted to full-time NBA staff officials for the 2022-23 season . According to Career Trend, those who officiate WNBA games earn a salary of $180,000 per year to start. These were different times. Collect, curate and comment on your files. Rather, Hopkins said afterward that in general the Liberty got the short end of the stick, both in this game and all season long. Since Holtkamp-Sterling, four more women have been hired as full-time NBA referees. Other projections put the base salary for new referees somewhere around $250,000. According to Career Trend, WNBA referees earn a base salary of $180,000 per year. The other five women officials speak highly and graciously of her and look to her as a mentor as well as a trailblazer for referees. "[The NBA] worked closely with me to make sure that the locker room was where I needed it to be as a nursing mother," Holtkamp-Sterling said. #24 Scott, #77 Lane, #17 Sterling Before finally making her way to the league, Schroeder reffed in almost every league imaginable. Ashley Moyer-Gleich, 33, a former Millersville University college basketball player who debuted as a full-time NBA referee in 2018 after working in the WNBA, took years of mentorship from Kantner; both are from cities within an hour of each other in Pennsylvania. Mosher has . There was an error submitting your subscription. "But did it bother me? ESPN was unable to obtain comment from Kantner, 60, for this story. "It's almost normal now. In the beginning, back in 1997, there were two: Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner. And that is where the NBA has been busy in recent years. The ability to advance in this career is evident. None of it deterred her -- in fact, quite the opposite. Female NBA Referees Are Becoming a Normal Part of the Game. Within several years, for the 2014-15 season, Holtkamp-Sterling would become the first woman hired as a full-time NBA official in nearly two decades. 7:30 PM ET Professional referees in the National Basketball Association are divided into three distinctions: Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), entry-level and Senior. Referees: Katie Lukanich, Darren Krzesnik, Kyle Bacon. Two black women did something this week that no other women have done before: They refereed a professional basketball game together. After all, she could have stayed in women's basketball, where she was one of the top officials in the college world. The NBA, like the society it's part of, inches ever closer to true equity. 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. These women, who collectively had precious few female sports icons as children, now recognize their own role in inspiring a future generation. Select referees by season: . 2020. . . Thats where she remembers watching Candace Parker with Tennessee, and Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird with UConn. Browse 1,151 wnba referees stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. She became a professional referee in 1999 by officiating matches in the Women's Bundesliga, after that she was selected to officiate in the Regionalliga. While that was the most overtly negative experience Holtkamp-Sterling recalls from her career, it wasn't the only one. Now were bearing the fruit of this.. Holtkamp reffed in the G-League for six years before eventually getting the call-up to the big stage. 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.. Palmer and Kantner smashed this barrier; those who came after them are trying to stomp on its remains. 2020 WNBA Inside the Rulebook: Block, Charge. Luka Doncic Arguing With The Female Ref Fouling In Love What? Natalie Sago says her time officiating games in the WNBA prepared her for an NBA officiating job. 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. They make up 8% of the 75-member officiating staff. Young women shouldn't have to look at officiating, or so many other traditionally male-dominated professions, as rarified air for only the chosen few.