NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has called for at least half of the league’s future referee hires to be women as well as encouraging teams to consider women for potential coaching roles. According to Sopan Deb of The New York Times, Silver made the following comments to the Economic Club of Washington, D. C.:
“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 of being a man, as opposed to a woman when it comes to refereeing”
…
“There’s no reason why women shouldn’t be coaching men’s basketball”
According to the National Basketball Referees Association (NBRA), the NBA currently features three female referees out of its seventy-one officials. The NBRA’s listing of only three female referees clearly highlights Silver’s concerns over male-dominated NBA officiating has historically been, with women facing more scrutiny in such positions than men, such as then Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul’s comment toward referee Lauren Holtkamp that officiated “might not be for her”.
Adam Silver’s calls for gender diversity in coaching is also intended to shake up a typically male-dominated facet of the league. The NBA did not feature a full-time female coaching assistant until the San Antonio Spurs hired six-time WNBA all-star Becky Hammon as his assistant. The league has still yet to feature a female Head Coach, which may be a coming change with Adam Silver’s proposed reforms.
