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 on 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's been involved in plenty of good calls.
Less 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 grades and rankings, play-calling accuracy and team rankings.” Further evaluations take place after each playoff round.
“It’s such an honor,” Sago said. "I couldn’t be more excited and ready to just put on a performance for the other women coming behind me and all the young little girls that are going to be watching the playoffs.”
Palmer worked nine playoff games from 2006-12; Moyer-Gleich worked two in 2024. Sago's first assignment this year — the league doesn't announce what referees are where until the day of the game — will be the 12th for a woman in NBA playoff history.
“I hope it does become normal," Sago said. "As long as we can do the work and do it well and work hard, it’s the same thing the men do on the staff. I just want us all to be NBA referees. I don’t want to be known as, ‘Oh, you’re the fifth female hired in the NBA ever.’ OK, great. I know that. But we're all the same people. We do the same job.”
The playoff referees are Ray Acosta, Brent Barnaky, Curtis Blair, Tony Brothers, Nick Buchert, John Butler, James Capers, Sean Corbin, Kevin Cutler, Eric Dalen, Marc Davis, JB DeRosa, Mitchell Ervin, Tyler Ford, Brian Forte, Scott Foster, Pat Fraher, Jacyn Goble, John Goble, Jason Goldenberg, Courtney Kirkland, Marat Kogut, Karl Lane, Mark Lindsay, Tre Maddox, Ed Malloy, Andy Nagy, Gediminas Petraitis, Kevin Scott, Ben Taylor, Josh Tiven, Justin Van Duyne, James Williams, Sean Wright, Zach Zarba and Sago.
Foster (262), Davis (218), Brothers (216), Capers (204), Zarba (173), John Goble (151), Malloy (150), Wright (104) and Corbin (100) have all worked at least 100 playoff games.
Sago — whose father has officiated basketball for more than 30 years — and Goldenberg are the two first-time selections to the playoff staff.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Referee Natalie Sago looks on during the first half of an NBA basketball game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the New Orleans Pelicans, April 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
Referee Natalie Sago reacts during the first half of an NBA basketball game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the New Orleans Pelicans, April 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Progressive leaders from around the globe gathered in Barcelona on Saturday to try and galvanize their forces and defend the multilateral rules-based order in a world turning to the right and violently torn by superpowers.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, hosted two overlapping events about democracy and progressive politics in Spain’s second-largest city.
Democrats U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were both present alongside the leaders of Brazil, South Africa and high-ranking officials from other left-leaning governments.
While no foreign leader criticized Trump by name in public, the staunchly unilateral position of the American president that breaks with decades of U.S. foreign policy, including his derision of NATO and the United Nations, hung over the meetings.
“We all see the attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” Sánchez said.
Trump again lashed out on Saturday on social media at Sánchez, who has faced Trump’s scorn for not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in Spain for operations related to the Iran war and for refusing to raise military spending from 2% to 5% of GDP.
“Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Spain, like the U.S. and other developed countries, is in debt, but it has one of the world’s leading economies under Sánchez.
Sánchez told the rally of progressive politicians and party members held later on Saturday that the populist right “screams and shouts not because they are winning but because they know their time is running out.
“They know their vision of how the world should be ordered is falling apart due to the tariffs and wars,” he said. “Their embrace of climate change denial, of xenophobia, or sexism is their greatest error.
“They have tried again and again to make us embarrassed of our beliefs. That ends now. From now on they can be the ones who feel ashamed.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and other leaders and officials, including Cabinet members from the United Kingdom and Germany, were in attendance at the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy that kicked off Saturday's double-header of political events at the Barcelona convention center.
Later in the day, Sánchez, Lula and Ramaphosa stayed put to attend the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization, where some 6,000 left-leaning elected officials, policy analysts and activists exchanged ideas.
“The far right is international, so we must be too,” German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told a crowd of activists.
Sen. Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, spoke at the progressive rally and he didn’t shy away from blasting Trump while celebrating the loss of power of Trump's ally Viktor Orbán in elections in Hungary last week.
“Donald Trump is out to end our democracy,” Murphy said. “We are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover, we are in the middle of it.”
But, he said, “Americans are watching what is happening across the world, and the victory in Hungary just one week ago lifted our sails.”
Walz, Kamala Harris' vice presidential candidate who has faced a violent ICE migration crackdown in Minnesota, threw barbs at U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who campaigned for Orbán and has backed far-right parties in Europe.
“Unlike our current vice president, I’m not here to arrogantly lecture or scold you, I am not here to pick a fight with the Pope or host a rally for any local wannabe authoritarians,” Walz said.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders all sent video messages played at the rally.
Among concrete proposals to come from the events, Ramaphosa said South Africa will present a draft resolution to establish an International Panel on Inequality, aiming to tackle the growing wealth gap both within and between nations, to the U.N. General Assembly in September.
Sheinbaum plugged her idea that governments commit to spending the equivalent of 10% of their military budgets on reforestation projects.
“Each year, instead of planting the seeds of war, we will plant the seeds of life,” she said.
Sánchez argued for the importance of regulating social media to stop the spread of hate speech and disinformation. His government also said that it is working with Lula's Brazil on a tax for the ultrarich.
Lula, who met with Sánchez in a bilateral summit on Friday in Barcelona, kept the focus on how to invigorate the progressive moment. He avoided naming Trump except when he called for U.N. Security Council members to “fulfill their obligation and guarantee peace.”
“Stop this madness of war because the world cannot bear any more wars,” Lula said.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, left, reacts next to Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the end of the Global Progressive Mobilisation summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., delivers a speech at the Global Progressive Mobilisation summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, applauds as he poses with attendees at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit, in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, poses with attendees, at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, poses for a photo next to Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, and his wife wife Rosangela Lula da Silva, at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit, in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, right, greets Colombia's President Gustavo Petro at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, right, greets Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center left, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, second right, Uruguay's President Yamandu Orsi, left, and Chile's former President Gabriel Boric, right, attend the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
