Hubert "Hugh" Evans (November 8, 1940 – July 8, 2022) was an American basketball referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 28 seasons. He worked 1,969 regular season NBA games and 35 NBA Finals games during his NBA officiating career from 1972 to 2001. He subsequently served as an assistant supervisor of officials in the NBA front office.
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Early life
Evans was born in Squire, West Virginia, in 1940. He studied at North Carolina A&T State University, where he played basketball and baseball for the Aggies. After graduating, he was selected in the 12th round (80th overall) of the 1963 NBA draft by the St. Louis Hawks, becoming the third player from A&T to be drafted by an NBA team after Al Attles and Herbert Gray. However, Evans opted to pursue baseball and played several seasons in the minor leagues for the San Francisco Giants. During the 1963 season, he posted a .288 batting average with 6 home runs and 25 runs batted in (RBI) in 48 games for the Salem Rebels, a Giants affiliate playing in the Appalachian League.
Career
Evans relocated to New York City and was director of a community center in Brooklyn by 1968. He paid $100 to sign up for an officials’ camp – later calling it "the best investment I ever made" – and officiated amateur basketball games in the summer league held at Rucker Park in Harlem. The camp director soon asked him whether he would be interested in refereeing professional games. Evans subsequently agreed to a part-time contract with the NBA in 1972 to officiate 47 games, before becoming a full-time referee the following year. He became the second NBA referee to come from a historically Black college or university after Ken Hudson.