NBA commissioner Adam Silver calls for more female referees and coaches
Friday 10 May 2019 07:35, UK
NBA commissioner Adam Silver wants half of all new referees joining the league to be women.
He pointed out that in the developmental G League, two women were among five recent officials hired, bringing the total number of female officials currently working in the NBA to three.
"I'm not sure how it was that it remained so male-dominated for so long," Silver said.
"Because it's an area of the game where physically, certainly, there's no benefit of being a man, as opposed to a woman when it comes to refereeing.
"The goal is: Going forward, it should be roughly 50-50 of new officials entering in the league."
Silver also wants to see more equality among the league's coaching staffs.
"There's no reason why women shouldn't be coaching men's basketball," he added.
Among the NBA's coaching staffs this season, assistants Becky Harmon of the San Antonio Spurs and Kristi Toliver of Washington Wizards were the only women employed.
In 1997, some were critical of the NBA's decision to hire two female referees, Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer.
Then playing with the Houston Rockets, Charles Barkley said: "Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I just hope they don't have women officials.
"It's the principle of the thing. I wouldn't want a man doing a WNBA game."
