J-Speaks: Two Women Make NBA History

 

There was a ground-breaking moment when the Charlotte Hornets played at the Orlando Magic on Monday night. That moment was not by any of the players or the head coaches. This glass-breaking moment for the National Basketball Association (NBA) was courtesy of two members of the three-person referee crew.

On Monday night, Natalie Sago and Jenna Schroeder made NBA history as the first two women to be assigned to work a regular-season game together.

Sago and Schroeder worked the Hornets-Magic tilt with crew chief Sean Wright, with Sago being the referee and Schroeder being the umpire.

Before the game, Sago and Schroeder took a picture with Wright to commemorate this milestone in NBA history, where Wright was in the middle of the photo.

 “This is a big deal,” Schroeder, Flint, MI native said of the history she and Sago made on Monday night. “It’s like my feminist dreams come true, that like my personal values are colliding with my professional values and it’s awesome.”

The NBA so far this season has used 76 referees, and seven of them have been women, already a record for the most to work games during any season in league history.

That group of seven includes Lauren Holtkamp-Sterling of Atlanta, GA, Ashley Moyer-Gleich of Camp Hill, PA, Simone Jelks of Cleveland, OH, Danielle Scott, Dannica Mosher, Suyash Mehta of Baltimore, MD, Andy Nagy of Toledo, OH, and the aforementioned Sago and Schroeder.

Scott and Mosher are non-staff, while Holtkamp-Sterling, Moyer-Gleich, Jelks, Sago, and Schroeder are full-time members of the NBA’s officiating roster.

This is not the first time that Sago and Schroeder have refereed a professional basketball game together as they were part of three-women crews in the NBA’s G League. It is the first time though they have worked an NBA game together, and it was something they both looked forward to since they saw it scheduled on the internally distributed schedule last month.

The three-person referee crews for NBA games are not announced to the public until 9 a.m. Eastern standard time on game day.

“It’s so cool,” Sago, of Farmington, MO said of this glass-ceiling breaking moment. “All of us, we’re so happy and excited to work together. We just have a good group of females, we’re all close, we have great relationships and we share these moments.”

The original schedule had called for another three-person referee crew with two women for another game later this week. While those plans have since been changed, but Sago is certain this will not be the last game with multiple female officials.

“It’s amazing,” Sago said. “I’m just so proud to be part of an organization that promotes people to do the job based on our abilities, not on our gender, race, ethnicity, those types of things.”

It is not lost on Sago and Schroeder that this glass shattering moment comes amidst a flurry of history making days for women not just in the sports world, but in the world in general.

On Dec. 30, 2021, San Antonio Spurs (9-8) assistant coach Becky Hammon became the first woman to coach an NBA team taking over when head coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in the first half of the team’s 121-107 loss versus the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers (14-4).

One week ago, the U.S. swore in the first woman, first African American woman, and first woman of South Asian dissent in former U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) to the second highest office in our nation’s government.

On Feb. 7, Sarah Thomas will be the first woman to be on the Super Bowl officiating crew when the reigning Super Bowl champion and American Football Conference champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the National Football Conference champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.

This past college football season, Sarah Fuller broke the glass-ceiling in that sport as the first woman to kick a field goal for the Vanderbilt University.

“I wish my daughter was here to see this,” Schroeder said of the history many women are making in our nation. 

This moment was not lost on Hornets head coach James Borrego, who said after his squad’s 117-108 loss at the Magic of the moment, “It’s a special night for our league and for women and I look at somebody like my daughter, who will be watching and it’s a big step.”

“I love that I’m a part of a league that break’s barriers, and tonight I’m proud to be a part of that game.”

Two women that made it possible for this moment are Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer, the league’s first full-time female NBA officials in 1997 when the NBA began utilizing female referees.

Kanter though was the first female NBA official to be fired by the league in 2002, which left Palmer as the lone female referee for the next 12 seasons until the 2016-17 season.

The NBA has had only seven full-time female officials in its history, with five still currently working for the league.

Schroeder became a full-time referee two years ago, and Jelks followed a year later. Before getting promoted to being a full-time NBA official, Schroeder as mentioned spent time in the G League before being promoted to being a full-time NBA game official.

Monday night was a major moment in NBA history with two female officials scheduled to ref an NBA game. With the amount of female referees in the NBA now, it was just a matter of time before this happened. That moment happened on Monday night.

With all the glass ceiling shattering moments we have had in sports and in our world in recent months, it will be more special when seeing two female NBA referees officiating an NBA game will be normal and not just a special moment.

“Very special moment,” NBATV studio analyst and recent newest addition to the WNBA’s Chicago Sky Candace Parker said on Tuesday night’s edition of NBATV’s “Gametime.” “But once again, it’s 2021. We need more of that. This does not need to be a segment in 2022.”

Information and quotations are courtesy of 12/23/2021 www.nba.com story, “NBA Promotes 3 Referees To 2020-21 Officiating Staff;” 1/25/2021 www.mcall.com story, “NBA First: Natalie Sago and Jenna Schroeder To Be Part of Two-Woman Ref Crew,” by Tim Reynolds; 1/25/2021 www.cbssports.com story, “Two Female Referees To Officiate Same Game For First Time In NBA History,” by Chris Bengel; 1/25/2021 www.nba.com story, “Sago, Schroeder Part of NBA’s First Two-Woman Ref Crew,” by Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press; 1/26/2021 1:30 a.m. NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by Kia with Ro Parrish, Candace Parker, and Steve Smith; https://www.espn.com/nba/game?gameid=401267220; https://www.nbra.net/nba-officials/referee-biographies/natalie-sago/; https://www.espn.com/nba/standings;  https://www.nbra.net/nba-officials/referee-biographies/jenna-schroeder/; https://www.nbra.net/nba-officials/referee-biographies/lauren-holtkamp/; and https://www.nbra.net/nba-officials/referee-biographies/ashley-moyer-gleich/.