Violet Palmer: The First Female All-Star NBA Referee

Violet Palmer left, Evan Turner complaining right

  Palmer, born in Compton, California has been officiating NBA games since 1997.  Seventeen years later she found herself at the 2014 NBA All-Star game, busting down yet another barrier for women.  At one point Palmer believed reaching the NBA was unattainable.  Satisfied with her current role at the time as a top officiator of women's college basketball, Palmer wasn't looking to make the leap, but the NBA was looking at her.  With little room in the NBA's active referee pool (62), she thought her initial phone call in 1995 from NBA Assistant Director of Officiating Adam Wade was a prank call from a friend of hers.  After two years of the NBA evaluating her in NBA Summer League games and other non regular season games, she was hired. Her first regular season action came quickly, refereeing the opening game of the season between the Dallas Mavericks and Vancouver Grizzlies.

Voting Changes for NBA All-Star Game are Needed

By: Micah Sokolsky

The starters have been announced and the 2014 NBA All-Star Game is only a few weeks away; February 16th to be exact.  The fans have spoken and voted to see their favorite players participate in the mid-season classic:  a game filled with dunks, alley-oops, fast breaks, and zero defense always provides entertainment for the viewing audience.  Who doesn't want to watch Blake Griffin jump over everybody or LeBron James soar to the hoop and have every player on the floor watch it happen?  Unlike in baseball, the NBA All-Star Game is for the entertainment of the fans and players alike, and has no real value.  Win or lose, everyone has a great time.

Water Cooler Talk: What to do about the NBA All-Star Game

The NBA All-Star game was this past Sunday and like always it was a very high scoring game with virtually no defense played at all.  The game lately has not been exciting and it doesn’t help when All-Star Saturday has been lackluster.  For this post I am going to compare the NBA All-Star game TV ratings to the other major sports.  I also asked fellow Sport Management Students Kevis Pinto, Michael Proska, and Lindrit Shkodra what they felt could be done to make the game gain viewership.   

Above the Rim: Another Utterly Underwhelming NBA All Star Weekend

On paper, the NBA All star weekend should be one of the (best) sporting events of the calendar year. Unlike other professional all star games, the NBA hosts an entire weekend of events, with different (things) happening every day from Friday until Sunday. The two biggest events besides the All Star game itself are the Dunk Contest and Three Point Contest. Regrettably, these promising factors haven't lead to very much entertainment in the last few years. It seems as if I get sucked into all of the hype year after year. It's going be great!! The dunks are going to be awesome! And the three point contest! And the actual game! After it was all over this year, I felt really let down. It can't be this bad, right? With all of the best players in the league participating, why does this weekend continue to disappoint?