Women Refs in the NBA

[Matt S.]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

And you work with officials that are better trained, understand the philosophies of the people they work for and you do not have to discuss things that you do with high school only officials. That is not to say that you cannot have issues with college officials, but if I am the Referee on the game, I can answer directly to the supervisor and fill out an evaluation of all the officials I work with that night. They know this so they follow what is the protocols or might get called on it by either the Referee or the Supervisor wondering what took place. More accountability IMO.

Peace

Might be the case with your coordinator/gender. I've worked more Saturday D3 women's games with a U2 that has no business being on that game, other than the fact that he/she was available. I'm all for women advancing, but any official needs to see more that 3 seasons worth of plays before being put into a college environment, IMO.

[Matt S.]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

. Why would I work a game for $65 when I can get games for $185 to $200 for some small college basketball games?

Peace

This was my EXACT mentality until this past year, when I decided not to officiate due to the pandemic. And now, after skipping what would have been season #21 of HS and #8 of small college, I'm thinking less about the money and more about time with my 2-year-old son. If someone needs the income, different story. But for someone like me, who was working a 50/50 college/HS split of about 35-40 games a year, I can drop my college schedule and the additional commitment that comes with it (camps, film study, on-site 90 minutes early, 2-hours in the car each way, etc)...and it'll cost me maybe $2k at most.

Everyone has their priorities.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Matt S.

This was my EXACT mentality until this past year, when I decided not to officiate due to the pandemic. And now, after skipping what would have been season #21 of HS and #8 of small college, I'm thinking less about the money and more about time with my 2-year-old son. If someone needs the income, different story. But for someone like me, who was working a 50/50 college/HS split of about 35-40 games a year, I can drop my college schedule and the additional commitment that comes with it (camps, film study, on-site 90 minutes early, 2-hours in the car each way, etc)...and it'll cost me maybe $2k at most.

Everyone has their priorities.

I have worked all the State Finals I can work at the high school level, so working high school is fun and has appeal, but not the end all be all. I want to do some other things in my career. Certainly not about the money, but I would rather work a college game over an hour away and make 3 times as much than working a high school with less accountability of the participants and more accountability for me and my partners. I just like the challenge and so do others. And when you are in your 20s with not the same family dynamic in your life, those checks matter.

Peace

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I'm not sure, but I believe that we have a Forum member whose two children did pretty much what Kansas Ref described, going professional (G League, WNBA) at a very young age.

They worked HS and lower level college games with me. So did their cousin who is now an NBA official.

You don't just "join up" to the G-League. The NBA has scouts who attend HS and college games, camps, and higher level AAU type tournaments to see officials who are on the radar. The NBA also has all sorts of Grassroots camps to identify talent.

The NBA does prefer getting their hands on officials before they been indoctrinated by the local vets with bad habits. If you are athletic and can run very well, they figure they can teach you how to officiate.

My HS commissioner and his top trainer are NBA officials. They really don't want the longtime, grizzled vets imparting too much advice on the up-and-coming officials who have potential to break into the NBA or D1 basketball.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

They worked HS and lower level college games with me.

I didn't mean to imply that they started in the G-League, or the WNBA, but they seemed to go professional at a very young age. I only became an online friend of their Dad a few years ago and maybe I got the wrong impression regarding their age and amateur experience. Dad's seems to be a nice guy and is a good online friend, but please don't tell him that I said that. By the way, he's not the third best official in the family, it's his lovely wife, or the dog, and you can tell him that I said that, he's heard it from me before.

[SC Official]

Originally Posted by Raymond

My HS commissioner and his top trainer are NBA officials. They really don't want the longtime, grizzled vets imparting too much advice on the up-and-coming officials who have potential to break into the NBA or D1 basketball.

This.

Because often the "advice" you get from high school officials who have been "doing this for 30 years" is quite frankly, garbage.