As a Suns fan, there aren’t too many things that scare you quite these four words: Scott Foster Game 6. We’ve talked about this before, it seems almost impossible that one among the good point guards of all time would be 0-12 in playoff games refereed by Scott Foster. What you maybe don’t realize… Scott Foster has been at the highest of the mountain of most referees since I used to be wearing basketball shorts underneath my jeans.
How bad? FIVE YEARS AGO the L.A. Times polled NBA players (anonymously) about who the worst refs were, and therefore the top of the list was … Scott Foster. And it wasn’t even close. Ten more votes (24) than the second-place worst ref (14). It’s not like he’s gotten better within the ensuing years.
According to Basketball-Reference, he’s calling fouls at a way greater rate than others, and it’s not just fans who have noticed. Players are conscious of it, too. many them. Donaghy even admitted to our own cat and PFT on Pardon My Take that certain refs are brought in specifically by the league to control a series. As people have noted before, maybe the foremost shocking thing about this complete sordid episode is that the NBA managed to convince the planet that they had a Tim Donaghy scandal on their hands and not a way larger, much worse betting scandal that involved multiple referees. So Game 6 tonight is another Scott Foster game. But maybe for the primary time in Chris Paul’s career, which may play in his favor, because the NBA considerably wants a Game 7.
The question is how the opposing forces will interact. Scott Foster absolutely getting off to fucking Chris Paul over (metaphorically of course) versus the NBA’s absolute got to see a game 7 within the NBA Finals after a dry dry year where most of the season was spent without fans. Could the very fact that Scott Foster, the NBA’s henchman, is here for Game 6 actually add Chris Paul’s favor for the primary time in playoff history??