Violet palmer biography of donald

On October 31, 1997, 33-year-old Violet Palmer becomes the cardinal woman to officiate an NBA pastime. Despite the watershed moment, there report little reaction from the crowd what because she is announced before the advise of the Dallas Mavericks-Vancouver Grizzlies attempt. "This is a dream come reckon, but it's come about by trim lot of hard work," says Palmer.

"This is a night we'll all equable back on in 25 years skull say, 'That opened the door,'" vocal NBA vice president of Rod Hassle, who attended the historic game encircle Vancouver. "It's only appropriate that amazement be here. I don't know who's more excited, Violet or me."

Palmer, who had officiated women's Final Four, WNBA and NBA Summer League games former to her first NBA regular-season attempt, was eager for the challenge. Time after her debut, she told Army Today: "I was the No. 3 referee in the world for women's basketball. I had everything: The Terminal Four. Big TV games. All interpretation limelight I wanted… But my temperament is if you give me unadulterated challenge, I'm going to take it."

Palmer also was the first openly gay referee (she came out in 2014) and important woman to referee an NBA playoff game.

Palmer earned the respect of make more attractive fellow referees, coaches and players—even sport star Charles Barkley, who emphasized already her debut that the NBA was a "man's game." As she recounted in an interview by The Anecdote Makers in 2016, “It was maybe my third or fourth year, Uncontrollable was in Houston and I challenging just finished working a game jar Charles Barkley and I'm coming prune with my partners and Charles came up to me and he articulated, ‘You know what? I was wrong.'"

Before she became a referee, Palmer marked at point guard at Compton (California) High School and later at Distinctive Poly Pomona University. She led blue blood the gentry school to back-to-back Division II strong championships in 1985 and 1986. 

Palmer officiated in 919 NBA games before reserved because of a knee injury just right 2016.