HBCU alumni are starting to take over in the NBA, but not in a way that one might think. Robert Covington, a wing player for the Philadelphia 76ers, is the sole HBCU product from Tennessee State among the 450 active NBA players right now. While it’s increasingly harder for HBCU athletes to break into the NBA like their predecessors Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Charles Oakley, and Ben Wallace, more graduates are taking the officiating route.
Nine of the 74 league officials are products from an HBCU. Tom Washington, who attended Norfolk State University, is one of the longest-tenured referees in the league right now as he’s in his 33rd year of service. He’s officiated 1,780 regular season games, 181 playoff games, and four NBA Finals games.
Washington worked alongside Dan Crawford and Tony Brothers in Game 2 of the 2012 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder. The three made history as the first all-black officiating crew in an NBA Finals game. Washington also worked alongside Tony Brown (Clark Atlanta) and Courtney Kirkland (Southern) to create an all-HBCU graduate crew during the 2021 All-Star game in Atlanta.
Southern has produced the most NBA officials among the other HBCUs. Kirkland, Bennie Adams, and C.J. Washington have a combined 61 seasons of officiating experience. Adams spoke about being a referee and mentoring the other two Jaguars.
“It’s something that was passed down to me, just having attended an HBCU,” he told NBA.com. “What I though was ok really wasn’t enough to be successful in the real world. So that tough love was just pushing them to do better, to do more because they had it in them.”
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