Ashley Moyer-Gleich becomes second woman selected to officiate in NBA playoffs

Ashley Moyer-Gleich

Ashley Moyer-Gleich checked her email just before heading to the airport on Saturday for a trip to what she thought would be her final game of the season.

That’s when the news came in: She has more games to do.

Moyer-Gleich will soon become only the second woman in NBA history to referee a playoff game. She was one of 36 referees announced by the league Thursday as its referee selections for Round 1 of the playoffs starting this weekend.

“It’s surreal,” Moyer-Gleich said. “It really is.”

She joins Violet Palmer as the only women picked by the NBA for a playoff assignment. Palmer worked nine playoff games between 2006 and 2012.

Moyer-Gleich, a former Division II player at Millersville University in her native Pennsylvania, was promoted to the full-time NBA officiating ranks in November 2018. She’s worked more than 200 regular season games in her six seasons and is one of three first-time playoff selections by the league this year — Marat Kogut and J.T. Orr are the others.

“I worked four games as an alternate last year, so obviously, my goal was I wanted to be an alternate again because that’s just sustaining the growth that I’ve had in my career,” Moyer-Gleich said. “And then to see my name on the list of working floor officials … I mean, my mom was with me, she came with me on my last two games for a little trip, and to open that email and have her there with me and share that news, it was really quite amazing.”