Natalie Sago third woman picked to referee in NBA playoffs - ESPN

NBA referee Natalie Sago thought a bad call was about to take place. A bad phone call, that is.

She was wrong.

The NBA on Monday announced the list of 36 officials selected to work this season's play-in tournament and first round of the playoffs. Sago is on the list, making her the third woman in league history — after Violet Palmer and Ashley Moyer-Gleich — to be picked for postseason work.

Sago got the word Saturday from Albert Sanders, the NBA executive who runs referee operations. She was arriving at the airport in Salt Lake City when the call came in.

«I see his name pop up and I was like: 'Oh boy, here we go. Did we screw something up in the game last night in Utah?'» said Sago, a veteran of more than 400 NBA games. «But then that phone call turned out to be a pretty awesome phone call.»

Evidently, she has been involved in plenty of good calls.

Fewer than half of the NBA's referees each season get playoff assignments. Sago wondered when her chance would come; she and Moyer-Gleich were promoted to the league's full-time staff in 2018, when they became the fourth and fifth women in league history to reach that level. More have followed.

«When you're on a high wire with no net under you and you're depending on the person to catch you, you don't really care what gender they are,» said Monty McCutchen, who oversees referee development and training for the NBA. «What you care about is whether they've been trained properly, and whether you can trust that they will be there for you when you need them. And that's one of the things that's really important that, in my opinion, we've gotten right.»

Playoff officials are selected, the league said, «based on key criteria assessed throughout the season: NBA Referee Operations