The Answer to the WNBA’s Officiating Issues Is Pretty Clear

The WNBA playoffs have not been decided by questionable officiating. But they have certainly been overshadowed by it. Which puts the league in a position similar to where it was earlier this season, and to where it was during the playoffs last year, and to where it was during the postseason nearly a decade ago. This is not a new topic of conversation. It’s not one that can be resolved before the Mercury and Aces tip off in Game 1 of the Finals on Friday. And that is exactly the problem for the WNBA. 

What does it mean to actually start fixing it? 

“It’s like every part of our league has gotten better, and that part has lagged behind, for whatever reason,” Fever coach Stephanie White said when asked her thoughts on refereeing last week. “Oftentimes, it’s infrastructure in terms of training, and oftentimes, it’s financial, right? And it’s really investing in who we have as officials, and sometimes it’s manpower, like, who’s coming into the program? How do we get them to stick around? How do we keep them growing and getting better? Do we have more resources to support them?” 

There are problems with exactly what gets called and how consistently and why. Every sports league is going to have occasional (or not so occasional) complaints on those points. But there is a bigger, ongoing structural issue with officiating in the WNBA, and White is correct to point it out. This is not just about what constitutes freedom of movement in the paint. It’s about the pipeline for referees and the resources they are given to do their jobs.

If the league wants people to believe that it takes complaints about officiating seriously, it needs to be able to claim that it does everything it can to put the best referees possible in the best spot to succeed. Many WNBA players and coaches have said they do not believe that is the case right now. It’s hard to see how they could feel otherwise.

The WNBA has claimed in the past that its referees do not view working in the league as a “stepping stone” to working in the NBA. But look at how the system is organized here. Refereeing in the WNBA means getting paid by the individual game. Refereeing in the NBA means being a salaried employee. The word “promotion” is no longer used to describe referees going from the WNBA to the NBA. But the announcements that staff referees are moving from the former to the latter still read an awful lot like corporate promotions. That makes sense, given that it’s generally how news is framed when someone moves on to a higher-paying, full-time gig. 

It’s fair to point out that’s a product of two leagues with different calendars and very different operational budgets. But when a coach like White asks, “Who’s coming into the program? How do we get them to stick around?” this is what the league has to reckon with. It will be difficult for the WNBA to make a convincing argument that it recruits and retains the best officials possible as long as this is their framework.

And there are questions besides those of who gets to work the games and how they get paid. There are other gaps here in terms of accountability. Consider the National Basketball Referees Association sharing a social-media video of Alyssa Thomas’s steal on Napheesa Collier in WNBA semifinals Game 3 with their interpretation of the play: “This is NOT a foul.” (The NBRA includes both NBA and WNBA refs.) Now imagine explanations of key late plays being disseminated through a Last Two Minutes Report and not a defensively worded post on X.

Which hits on another issue. There has clearly been a breakdown of communication here in the WNBA—not just in terms of explaining specific calls, or non-calls, but in terms of explaining this problem more comprehensively. Players and coaches have repeatedly expressed not just annoyance but confusion.    

“A lot of coaches’ frustration comes from the overall build-up,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said during the semifinals. “It wasn’t just that one play.”

The league can say that it does not have a problem. But it has clearly already lost the battle here in terms of perception. 

“Just hearing over and over and over again, ‘We use the best refs in the world. We don’t have a problem, you know, none of the injuries are due to physicality in the way that we’re reffing’—it’s an insult to my intelligence, honestly,” Collier said earlier this week in the Exit Interview Heard ‘Round the World. “I’ve played this game for my entire life, and you think that I don’t know what it looks like when it’s played the way it’s supposed to be played? And whether the league believes it has a problem or not, just even acknowledging it to the players would be a step in the right direction. There is clearly a problem.”

There is a dollar amount tied to training and retaining better officials and equipping them with infrastructure upgrades like an offsite replay center. It’s come to feel like an investment there might be money well spent for the WNBA. And the longer the league goes without considering those changes, the question it has to ask is not what it’s saving, but what it’s costing itself. 

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