The ongoing, yearslong feud between Chris Paul and Scott Foster took a very public turn on Wednesday when Foster ejected Paul in the first half of the Suns’ win over the Warriors. A few thoughts on one of the most bizarre player-referee rivalries in sports history …
No one really knows where this animosity began. What we do know is that Paul’s teams tend to lose in Foster officiated games. A . Tom Haberstroh, a veteran NBA reporter, tweeted that Paul’s teams were favored in 15 of 20 playoff games with Foster officiating. They went 3–17 in those games and lost by an average of 11.2 points. Yikes.
What the NBA will say is that Foster’s officiating had nothing to do with any of it. He consistently grades out as one of the league’s top referees. Last June, Foster refereed his 16th NBA Finals, an assignment reserved for only the best officials. When Paul’s Suns played in the Finals in 2021, Foster officiated it. Before this year’s Finals, the NBA noted in a press release that Foster had refereed 23 Finals games—more than any of the other 12 officials assigned to the series.