Former Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings star Matt Barnes responded on X to a tweet talking about NBA referee Scott Foster’s history of contact with former official Tim Donaghy. Donaghy was a veteran referee with 13 years of experience who was found to have a history of betting and providing insights to gamblers in exchange for money.
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With Scott Foster having recently ejected Chris Paul during his team’s loss against the Phoenix Suns, a Reddit thread exposing Foster’s long-term connection with Donaghy came up on the r/NBA subreddit.
The post talked about how Foster had received exactly 134 phone calls from Donaghy between October 2006 and April 2007. A snap of the post had been shared by NBAHoopla, which was then responded to by Barnes. Barnes suggested that he was one of many who believed Foster should simply not be allowed to officiate in NBA games due to his association with the disgraced Donaghy.
Furthermore, Donaghy also has a history of making controversial calls in the NBA, particularly when it comes to Chris Paul and his teams. Paul has a 3-17 record in the games that Foster has officiated in, with the Warriors’ guard himself claiming that things are personal between him and Foster after the game, according to Yahoo.
While such an eviction is bound to anger CP, Barnes also appeared to stand up for his former colleague. The 43-year-old used the incident to talk about Scott Foster’s shady history of officiating in the NBA and appeared to question why he is still a referee despite the close contact with Tim Donaghy.
Tim Donaghy called Scott Foster 134 times in a matter of months
The acrimonious nature of the Chris Paul ejection quickly brought focus back on Scott Foster’s questionable history. None of the 134 calls in question lasted for more than 2 minutes. Furthermore, Donaghy also stopped calling Foster once he claimed to have stopped gambling completely.
What’s more, as many as 54 times, these calls were made both before and after games that Foster had officiated in. That, alongside his history with Chris Paul, suggests that more might be at play than what meets the eye.
Paul seemed to smile during the controversy and was seemingly asked by Stephen Curry to simply walk away. There is little doubt that both the CP3 and Foster are personally embroiled in a feud that has gone on for years. The NBA might be wise to simply not allow Foster to officiate in certain games, although the official has not been proven to have been involved in any wrongdoing.
