palmer

In 1997, Violet Palmer was given the opportunity to officiate basketball games at the national level. She became the first female NBA referee that year, and remains to be the only woman in the position.

She’s faced countless forms or adversity and discrimination, but has never given up.

From CNN:

“I think for all women, we can do anything we want; we just have to have the opportunity to now show that we can do the job.” she told CNN’s Michaela Pereira.

[…] “Every negative thing you can think of, they’ve thrown it at me.”

” ‘You’re not going to make it.’ ‘Why are you here? Go back to WNBA.’ ‘Players and coaches are not going to accept you.’ ‘Your guys that you work with, they’re not going to accept you.’ “

Read more at CNN

Before becoming an official for the NBA, Palmer refereed high school and college-level games, collecting nine years of collegiate officiating experience under her belt. She’s refereed five NCAA Final Fours and two NCAA Championship games.

While she remains to be the sole female NBA referee in the league, Palmer is optimistic about the possibility of more women joining her on the court.”The bar is really high, but I can honestly say we have two women right now that are in our training program, and they are awesome.” she told CNN.

Congratulations to Ms. Palmer for setting the bar!

Thoughts on the NBA only having one female referee in almost 20 years?

What’s the hold up?

Sound off below!