Violet Palmer Talks To The Pope

… Cynthia Pope.

Yeah, I found this odd little video of Bill Simmons’ favorite NBA referee, Violet Palmer. The audio is pretty shit so I jotted down some quick quotes for the sake of your ears:

Violet Palmer does not ask NBA players for autographs:

“These are co-workers to me. They’re not celebrities to me, they’re not superstars. They’re just basketball players.”

She loves the excitement of the game, but she really loves 20,000 people booing her:

“I made a call last night and the whole arena was like, “boo”. And I’m sitting there going, this is pretty good. I like this. I’m demanding that much attention.”

(Um, is that something you really want a professional NBA ref saying?)

She golf’s a little, but not to the point where she drives herself crazy:

“It’s just fun for me. I play probably twice a week with my five-some. … It’s a little competitive, but not crazy.”

She travels every summer:

“I have tones of frequent flyer miles so why not use them for pleasure versus using them for work?”

She runs her own referee camp at USC:

“I only have about 25 campers, and it’s for any and all levels. If you’re trying to do high school, if you’re trying to do college, if you’re trying to get into the NBA, doesn’t really matter. It’s more of a teaching camp. … I have a couple of the guys from the NBA help me.”

She knows how to become a good referee:

“What most people don’t understand is to be a good referee you really have to study your craft. Which is probably in any field. (Ed note: Especially craftmakers!) But a lot of people don’t know that you really have to take the time, get in your rule book… you have to work games, at all levels.”

Violet Palmer Interview [YouTube]

Share This

By J.E. Skeets at 10:18 am on 09.14.2006 — Tags: Referees, Media

Comments

6 Responses to “Violet Palmer Talks To The Pope”

  1. The Word Nazi at 2:17 pm on 09.14.2006

    You’re writing for SLAM now, you need to step up your word game.

    to (adv): to be in normal or required position or condition
    (co-workers to me)

    too (adv) to a greater extent than is desirable or permissable (Shaq’s shoes are too small, he takes too many liberties with his grammar)

    But then I didn’t hear the clip. Maybe she meant her co-workers are to a greater extent than is desirable. And that their celebrity wasn’t permissable. Maybe she was making real commentary on how society puts its athletes on too high of a plateau….

  2. J.E. Skeets at 2:21 pm on 09.14.2006

    I told you the audio was shit … FIXED!

  3. The Word Nazi at 2:28 pm on 09.14.2006

    Salut.

  4. Howie aka Hype at 9:10 am on 09.15.2006

    Ah, who knew Violet Palmer would be quite serendipitous for my journey towards refereeing as well?

  5. Chris Clarke at 3:05 pm on 09.15.2006

    Worst. Ref. Ever.

  6. Sean at 12:18 am on 09.16.2006

    I’ve always thought her name was funny (hint: the word “rosy”).

Leave a Reply




Close
E-mail It