{"id":113071,"date":"2025-06-20T22:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T22:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/113071\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T22:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T22:23:09","slug":"nba-finals-referee-scott-foster-could-return-for-thunder-pacers-game-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/113071\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Finals referee Scott Foster could return for Thunder-Pacers Game 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Will the Pacers do the impossible and win it all or will the Thunder right the ship?<\/p>\n

Game. SEVEN. The Indiana Pacers forced Oklahoma City into a Game 7 at home.Who do you think comes out on top? The For The Hoops crew make their picks here.<\/p>\n

It is a strong likelihood that NBA<\/a> referee Scott Foster will officiate Game 7 of the NBA Finals<\/a> between the Indiana Pacers<\/a> and Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> Sunday, June 22.<\/p>\n

Foster, who is one of the NBA\u2019s top referees based on a multi-pronged ratings system that uses feedback from teams, called Game 4 in Indianapolis, and Pacers fans were unhappy with his whistle in the Thunder victory.<\/p>\n

The NBA does not publicly reveal referees until 9 a.m. ET of game day, but given the rotation of the Finals refs, it makes sense that Foster would get the assignment since he has reffed just one 2025 Finals game and hasn\u2019t been in the rotation since Game 4.<\/p>\n

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle defended Foster<\/a> at media availability before Game 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s awful some of the things I’ve seen about officiating, and Scott Foster in particular,\u201d Carlisle said on 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

PACERS COACH: Rick Carlisle defends referee Scott Foster after fan criticism<\/a><\/p>\n

Before the Finals began, the NBA announced the 12 referees who were selected to officiate Finals games based on evaluations from playoff games this season.<\/p>\n

Not every ref will get two games, but it won\u2019t be a surprise if Foster gets Game 7.<\/p>\n

Foster is working his 18th Finals and has reffed 25 Finals games, including Game 7 in the 2010 Finals between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers and Game 7 of the 2013 Finals between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

James Capers, Tyler Ford, Ben Taylor, Josh Tiven and Sean Wright are the other officials who have had just one Finals games this season. A crew of Foster plus a combination of Capers, Tiven and Williams makes sense. Ford and Taylor called their first Finals games this month.<\/p>\n

In Game 4, both teams combined to shoot 71 free throws, including 38 by the Thunder. On the NBA\u2019s Last Two-Minute Report, referee operations examined 17 plays and 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

Longtime NBA writer Tom Haberstroh, however,\u00a0referenced a study<\/a>\u00a0that says there\u2019s \u201cnot much evidence at all\u201d of Foster\u2019s ability to \u2018extend\u2019 the series.<\/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\u00a0in 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\u00a0time officiating an NBA Finals game. This is his 18th NBA Finals, overall..<\/p>\n

Foster is also a noted pickleball player<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will the Pacers do the impossible and win it all or will the Thunder right the ship? Game.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,1713,311,1501,113,126,54,79,70,85,6,1220,11,62,67,310,179,61,81,114,34,1712,1714,66,83,55,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-113071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-carlisle","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-finals","12":"tag-indiana","13":"tag-indiana-pacers","14":"tag-modular","15":"tag-modular-story","16":"tag-national","17":"tag-national-sports","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nba-finals","20":"tag-nba-playoffs","21":"tag-neutral","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-oklahoma","24":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","25":"tag-overall","26":"tag-overall-neutral","27":"tag-pacers","28":"tag-playoffs","29":"tag-rick","30":"tag-rick-carlisle","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-sports-news","33":"tag-story","34":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114718036038300396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113071","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=113071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}