The New York Knicks will host the Boston Celtics in Game 4, the Eastern Conference semi-finals, with Scott Foster as the crew chief.
This season, the NBA playoffs are becoming more and more physical than they have in recent years. Aaron Gordon had to be pulled away from James Harden, Benedict Maturin punched DeAndre Hunter, and Orlando Magic was accused of crossing the line from the Boston Celtics in the first round.
As the postseason attracted attention for fights and chippy plays, the NBA brought longtime referee Scott Foster to oversee Game 4 between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks.
Foster was named the worst official twice in the NBA by anonymous players, but has been working since 1994. When the NBA announced it would serve as crew chief, fans were happy to express their opinions.
Foster has been famous in NBA circles for decades. As far as officials are concerned, he has a hot temper, he loves to quickly kick players out and blow his whis.
This season, he actually ranked 49th out of 121 staff in fouls per game with 37.7 over 49 contests.
“The Knicks have won 80% of the game with him this season,” a fan posted. “Silver isn’t smooth about his childhood team.”
“The Knicks will win if they’re over 15 now,” another added.
Foster is known as the “extender.” Because Celtics fans want Boston to return from a 1-2 deficit, as they often win when teams trailing in the playoff series are hosting the game.
“Time to put my net worth on the Celtics,” cried out by another fan.
“Scott Foster hosts the Knicks game, yeah, we cooked him ______ sucks,” posted a Knicks supporter.
“Scott lets grow the extender tonight.
Of course, fans of both teams are sure Foster will give them advantages in the game, but his numbers this season (and more than his career) suggest that things may be fairly fair.
This season, the Knicks are 4-1 with the game’s Foster referee. Meanwhile, the Celtics are 3-1. Of course, both teams had solid seasons, so we can expect a winning record.
Foster has shown limited bias over his 31-season career spanning 2,000 regular-season games. He calls 21.4 fouls per game with the Knicks and 21.9 fouls per game with the Celtics.
He has been calling extra fouls against the Knicks opponents over the years and 0.8 fouls per game for Celtics opponents, so there are no signs of favour.
He was by the Knicks’ side this season due to limited sample sizes. In the five games he hosted, he called 16.6 fouls per game per game, 17.2 fouls per game. Meanwhile, Boston averaged only 15.9 fouls per game this year.
This is the difference between -0.5 for the Knicks and +3.4 for the Celtics. This will be a swing of almost eight points in favor of the Knicks if it hits every free throw.