Tyler Ford (born June 8, 1985) is an American

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger a ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA), wearing number 39. As of the

2022–23 NBA season The 2022–23 NBA season was the 77th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The regular season began on October 18, 2022, and ended on April 9, 2023. The 2023 NBA All-Star Game was played on February 19, 2023, at Vivint Arena i ...

Ford has officiated 463 regular-season games and 31 playoff games.

Early life

Ford was born on June 8, 1985, in

Lima, Ohio Lima ( ) is a city in Allen County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 35,579. It is located in northwest Ohio along Interstate 75 in Ohio, Interstate 75, appr ...

. He graduated from

Allen East High School Allen East High School is a four-year high school in Allen County, Ohio, U.S.. It was formed in the autumn of 1965 with the consolidation of the two eastern Allen County School Districts: Lafayette-Jackson and Auglaize-Local. The school was recogn ...

Lafayette, Ohio Lafayette is a village in Allen County, Ohio, United States. The population was 406 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Lima, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The village was incorporated in 1868. Geography According to ...

Officiating career

Ford officiated Division I college basketball for four seasons. Working games for the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

and the

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States, from Minnesota in the east, to the Dakotas, Nebraska and Colorado to the West, and Mis ...

. He also spent four seasons officiating the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

(WNBA). Before Ford joined the NBA officiating staff, he officiated five seasons in the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...

, where he worked the 2014 NBA G League All-Star Game and the 2015 NBA G League Finals. As of the

2022-23 NBA season The symbol , known in Unicode as hyphen-minus, is the form of hyphen most commonly used in digital documents. On most keyboards, it is the only character that resembles a minus sign or a dash, so it is also used for these. The name ''hyphen-min ...

Ford has officiated 463 regular-season games and 31 playoff games. He is in his ninth season as an NBA referee.

Personal life

Ford resides in

Westfield, Indiana Westfield is a city in Hamilton County, Indiana, United States. It is a northern suburb of Indianapolis. As of 2023, the population was 58,410. Westfield is in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. History Westfield was founded on May 6, 1834, b ...

. From 2009 to 2015 Ford worked as the assistant director of Intramural Sports at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

. He has a bachelor's and master's degree in Sport Administration from

Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State or BSU) is a public research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. The university has three off-campus centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Fishers, Indiana. The university is composed of seven aca ...

References

External links

National Basketball Referees Association bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Tyler 1985 births Living people Basketball people from Indiana Basketball people from Ohio Sportspeople from Indiana Sportspeople from Lima, Ohio People from Westfield, Indiana Ball State University alumni College men's basketball referees in the United States NBA referees NBA G League referees