Violet Renice Palmer is a retired American basketball referee in the NBA and WNBA and the first female official to reach the highest competitive tier in any major U.S. professional sports league. She also earned recognition as a member of two NCAA Division II women's championship basketball teams. Palmer was the first woman to officiate an NBA playoff game when she did so in the April 25, 2006 match between the Indiana Pacers and New Jersey Nets. In the NBA, Palmer wore uniform number 12. She retired in 2016.

The Knicks–Nuggets brawl was an on-court altercation at a National Basketball Association (NBA) game between the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 16, 2006. This altercation became the most penalized on-court fight in the NBA since the Indiana Pacers–Detroit Pistons brawl, otherwise known as the Malice at the Palace, which occurred on November 19, 2004.