Referee assignments inspire conspiracy theories about NBA play-in game

NBA referee Scott Foste.

The referee assignments for Tuesday’s Lakers-Pelicans game contain the two most controversial words in NBA officiating: Scott Foster.

There are two things that nearly every NBA fan believes about veteran official Scott Foster. One, he’s biased against their favorite team, no matter what that team is. Two, he’s the official that the NBA schedules when they want a certain outcome.

It’s rare that there’s a professional sports official with a well-publicized, decade-plus rivalry with a star player, but that appears to be the case with Foster and the Warriors’ Chris Paul.

According to commissioner Adam Silver, Foster is “one of the best, most highly rated referees in this league.” Yet Foster was also named “worst ref” in a poll of NBA players last April.

Part of the reason fans are suspicious of Foster is that his high ratings with the league mean he works a lot of playoff games. And when both teams and their fanbases think Foster is biased against them, any outcome will continue the narrative that he’s rigging games.

The other part of the suspicion comes from Foster’s well-publicized friendship with disgraced former referee Tim Donaghy. Foster received 134 phone calls from Donaghy during the period Donaghy admitted to gambling on NBA games, though Foster contends they could have been talking about “45 things. It could have been a family thing or who was hotter, Betty or Wilma.”

Besides his questionable attraction to cartoon cavewomen, there’s no real evidence that Foster favors any players or team, except what seems to be a clear dislike of Paul. Fans might think Foster’s presence favors LeBron James and the popular Lakers, but a better indication that the Lakers might win would be their blowout win in New Orleans on Sunday.

After all, the NBA arguably might want the Lakers to stay in the play-in tournament, for a possible ratings bonanza of a matchup with Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Friday. Which means conspiracy theorists can still believe Foster’s presence means the game is rigged, regardless of Tuesday’s result.

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