Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most active social media users in the NBA community, who likes to relay his hot takes on the league’s trending topics to his fans on the Internet. The Lakers legend and TNT analyst recently took to Instagram to platform Stephen A. Smith’s bold take on the Scott Foster and Chris Paul incident.
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Posting Smith’s comment to his Instagram story, Shaq shared a photo of Foster and Paul with the caption, “Scott Foster doesn’t need to be on the same court as Chris Paul moving forward.”
The comment shared by Shaq was made by Smith during a recent First Take segment. On the show, Stephen A. was asked about his opinion on the Chris Paul ejection. Addressing the same, he said, “I understand Chris Paul ain’t Steph Curry, he ain’t LeBron James. But I’ll be damned if we ain’t come to see him more than we came to see Scott Foster… Scott Foster doesn’t need to be on the same court as Chris Paul moving forward.”
The ESPN host further pointed out that fans come to the arena to see players, not referees. So the league has to be cognizant of officials making harsh decisions based on in-game incidents. Smith also harped on the 3-17 win-loss ratio for Paul’s teams under Foster’s officiating in the playoffs to substantiate his argument.
Stephen A. definitely had a pertinent take. The NBA’s stubbornness to not recognize and address the issue between Paul and Foster is already affecting games. The Warriors, who were already missing Draymond Green, were completely taken aback by Paul’s ejection. Though Foster is a great referee, he clearly lets his ego come in the way of his decision-making during times like these, making him unsuitable to be a fair judge in any game that Paul plays.
Revisiting the Chris Paul ejection
Scott Foster was the referee during a recent matchup between the Suns and the Warriors. The game was pretty much neck-to-neck before Foster decided to chuck Paul out. The incident occurred after Paul was booked for a foul on Kevin Durant with 23.5 left in the second quarter.
Arguing about the foul with Foster, Paul could be seen getting animated with the veteran official. In pure Foster fashion, the Dubs player was quickly booked for a technical foul after that. CP, who was livid about the technical, seemed to have called the ref a “B*tch”.
This comment from Paul led to his second technical foul, resulting in him being tossed from the game. But that wasn’t all, as even Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr was booked for his protests against the ejection. After the game, Paul was asked about the incident. Responding to the questions, he said,
“It’s personal…..We had a situation some years ago and it’s personal. The league knows. Everybody knows. There was a meeting and all of that. … I’m OK with a ref saying whatever they’re saying, but don’t use tech to get your point across.”
Moving forward I think it would be advisable for the league to not allow Foster and Paul on the same floor. With things now crossing all professional boundaries, it seems like there is no going back to normal for the duo.
