Violet Palmer

Violet Renice Palmer (born July 20, 1964) is an American basketball referee in the NBA and WNBA and the first female official to reach the highest competitive tier in a major U.S. professional sport. She also earned recognition as a member of two NCAA Division II women's championship basketball teams. Palmer was the first woman to officiate an NBA playoff game when she did so in the April 25, 2006 match between the Indiana Pacers and New Jersey Nets. In the NBA, Palmer wears uniform number 12.

A native of Compton, California, Palmer grew up in the same neighborhood where Serena and Venus Williams lived as small children. She attended college at Cal Poly Pomona, where she played point guard on the 1985 and 1986 NCAA Division II women's championship teams.

In 2001, Palmer established Violet Palmer's Official Camp to train youths in the art of officiating games. The camp runs annually from July 9 to July 11.

In 2010, Palmer was part of a family team on the game show Family Feud.

Palmer has officiated hundreds of NBA games, as well as others in the WNBA.

After years of refereeing at various levels, including NBA pre-season and exhibition games, Palmer was offered an opportunity to officiate the NCAA Division I men's tournament in 1996. She accepted, but the offer was later retracted when NCAA members balked at the idea of having a female referee male players.

In 1997, however, Palmer and Dee Kantner were signed by the NBA to together become the first top-level female officials in any major U.S. professional sport. On October 31, 1997, Palmer made history when she officiated the NBA season opener between the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Dallas Mavericks, in British Columbia, Canada.

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