Adam Silver on Female NBA Refs & Coaches

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has spoken about the role of women in the NBA, specifically in coaching and officiating.

Adam Silver was speaking for the Economic Club of Washington, D.C on Thursday. He said that he wants half of all new referees joining the NBA to be women.

Adam Silver reminded the audience that two of the past five referees added from the G League were women. This brings the total number of female referees in the NBA to three.

“It’s an area, frankly, where I’ve acknowledged that I’m not sure how it was that it remained so male-dominated for so long. Because it’s an area of the game where physically, certainly, there’s no benefit to being a man, as opposed to a woman, when it comes to refereeing,” Silver said.

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Silver also used the opportunity to talk about female NBA coaches.

“The goal is: Going forward, it should be roughly 50-50 of new officials entering in the league. Same for coaches, by the way. We have a program, too. There’s no reason why women shouldn’t be coaching men’s basketball.”

There has never been a female head coach in the league. Although, there have been three women to hold assistant positions.

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Becky Hammon made headlines when she became a full-time assistant for the San Antonio Spurs. She was the first female to be hired to such a position full-time. This season, Kristi Toliver worked for the Washington Wizards as an assistant coach.

Toliver balanced her assistant role while still playing for the Mystics in the WNBA.

Kelly Krauskopf became the NBA’s first assistant general manager when she was hired by the Indiana Pacers in December.