Jesse "Jess" Kersey (January 12, 1941 – April 22, 2017) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

referee who worked for the American Basketball Association and the

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

. Born in Newport News, Virginia, Kersey attended

Thomas Nelson Community College Virginia Peninsula Community College (VPCC) is a public community college with two campuses in Virginia, one in Hampton and the other in James City County. It also has two education centers The Southeast Higher Education Center in Newport News a ...

. Joining the NBA in 1973, Kersey was a highly regarded referee and officiated at the

1975 ABA All-Star Game The eighth American Basketball Association All-Star Game was played January 28, 1975 at HemisFair Arena in San Antonio, Texas before an audience at 10,449. Kevin Loughery of the New York Nets coached the East, with Larry Brown of the Denver Nugge ...

, the NBA All-Star Games in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

and 2002, and the NBA Finals in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

. During his 30-year career, he officiated 1,911 regular season games, 189 playoff games and 18 NBA Finals games. In July 1997, Kersey resigned from the NBA after 24 seasons as a referee after he pleaded guilty to

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

. Kersey returned to the NBA for the season and continued working games until the season. On April 10, 2007, Kersey was injured after

Corey Maggette Corey Antoine Maggette (; born November 12, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He became an analyst for Fox Sports. High school and college career Magget ...

collided with him, and Kersey underwent

hip replacement Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant, that is, a hip prosthesis. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi (half) replacement. Such joint replacement o ...

surgery the following year. Kersey was inducted into the

Virginia Sports Hall of Fame The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame honors athletes, coaches, administrators, journalists and other contributors to athletics. Many of the more than 350 inductees since 1972 were born in Virginia or enjoyed success in college, professional, amateur or ...

in 2012. Kersey died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

on April 22, 2017, in

Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is ...

, at the age of 76.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kersey, Jess 1941 births 2017 deaths American Basketball Association referees National Basketball Association referees Sportspeople from Newport News, Virginia Sportspeople from Williamsburg, Virginia Thomas Nelson Community College alumni Deaths from cancer in Virginia