{"id":101138,"date":"2025-06-15T21:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T21:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/101138\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T21:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T21:57:12","slug":"pacers-coach-rick-carlisle-defends-nba-finals-referee-scott-foster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/101138\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers coach Rick Carlisle defends NBA Finals referee Scott Foster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Pacers and Thunder NBA Finals is better than it\u2019s \u2018small-market\u2019 billing<\/p>\n

USA TODAY Sports\u2019 Jeff Zillgitt breaks down the star-studded NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n

Sports Pulse<\/p>\n

Indiana Pacers<\/a> coach Rick Carlisle<\/a> took exception Sunday to the criticism being levied at officiating during the NBA Finals<\/a>, specifically the rebukes against Scott Foster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s awful some of the things I’ve seen about officiating, and Scott Foster in particular,\u201d Carlisle said Sunday, June 15. \u201cI’ve known Scott Foster for 30 years. He is a great official. He has done a great job in these playoffs. We’ve had him a lot of times. The ridiculous scrutiny that is being thrown out there is terrible and unfair and unjust and stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Pacers and NBA fans had taken to social media to criticize Foster for his performance Friday night in Game 4 of the NBA Finals<\/a>, an eventual 111-104 Oklahoma City Thunder victory that evened the series<\/a> at 2-2.<\/p>\n

Both teams combined to shoot 71 free throws, including 38 by the Thunder.<\/p>\n

In particular, fans took exception to a play when Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pushed off against Pacers guard Aaron Nesmith<\/a> on a drive toward the left baseline, before Gilgeous-Alexander drained a step-back jumper. Gilgeous-Alexander appeared to take an extra step on the play, though he stumbled as he gathered his feet; Foster was very near the play, observing the action from the baseline.<\/p>\n

Foster officiated Game 4 with Josh Tiven (sixth Finals) and Sean Wright (second Finals). On the NBA\u2019s Last Two-Minute Report, referee operations examined 17 plays at found they were all \u201ccorrect calls\u201d or \u201ccorrect no-calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foster had reffed one previous Pacers playoff game this season.<\/p>\n

Some fans have given Foster the nickname \u201cThe Extender,\u201d claiming that he has a history of making dubious calls during the playoffs that have extended series.<\/p>\n

OPINION: In grueling NBA Finals, Pacers may regret Game 4 loss<\/a><\/p>\n

ANALYSIS: NBA Finals TV ratings don’t reflect complete picture<\/a><\/p>\n

Longtime NBA writer Tom Haberstroh, however, referenced a study<\/a> that says there\u2019s \u201cnot much evidence at all\u201d of Foster\u2019s ability to \u2018extend\u2019 the series.<\/p>\n

Haberstroh said Foster called 23 fouls (11 on the Pacers, 12 on the Thunder), Tiven called 17 fouls (nine on the Pacers, eight on the Thunder) and Wright called 13 fouls (seven on the Pacers, six on the Thunder).<\/p>\n

Bill Simmons, the former writer and now media executive and podcaster, said of the game: \u201cIt was just an abomination. It was a typical Scott Foster (game), all over the place, just involved like weird stoppages, missed calls, like calling touch fouls, then not calling somebody getting clubbed in the head. They had no control of this entire game.\u201d<\/p>\n

How are NBA Finals referees selected?<\/p>\n

According to the NBA, playoff referees are selected, \u201cbased on their overall performance throughout the first three rounds of the NBA Playoffs 2025. Officials were evaluated by the NBA Referee Operations management team after each round to determine advancement in this year\u2019s postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who is NBA referee Scott Foster?<\/p>\n

Foster is considered one of the best referees in the league.<\/p>\n

An official in his 30th season with the NBA<\/a>, Foster entered this season having officiated 1,675 regular season games and 241 postseason games. Friday night was Foster\u2019s 25th time officiating an NBA Finals game. This is his 18th NBA Finals, overall.<\/p>\n

Foster is also a noted pickleball player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pacers and Thunder NBA Finals is better than it\u2019s \u2018small-market\u2019 billing USA TODAY Sports\u2019 Jeff Zillgitt breaks down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260,280,7,1713,311,1501,623,113,126,70,85,6,1220,11,261,62,67,310,179,61,81,114,34,1712,1714,622,209,66,83,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-101138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-aaron","9":"tag-aaron-nesmith","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-carlisle","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-finals","14":"tag-gilgeous-alexander","15":"tag-indiana","16":"tag-indiana-pacers","17":"tag-national","18":"tag-national-sports","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nba-finals","21":"tag-nba-playoffs","22":"tag-nesmith","23":"tag-neutral","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-oklahoma","26":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","27":"tag-overall","28":"tag-overall-neutral","29":"tag-pacers","30":"tag-playoffs","31":"tag-rick","32":"tag-rick-carlisle","33":"tag-shai","34":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","35":"tag-sports","36":"tag-sports-news","37":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114689621659367436","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}