The NBA has witnessed a few of the most fierce rivalries in the history of sport during its lifetime. Yet, nothing comes close to the long-standing player-referee conflict between Chris Paul and Scott Foster. Following a recent controversy surrounding them, Gilbert Arenas shed light on the duo’s personal history in the latest episode of Gil’s Arena.
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The 41-year-old recounted an incident from a playoff game during Chris’ time at the Los Angeles Clippers, where Foster had officiated. “In the playoff game, I think it was against the Spurs when he went up to him and said, ‘Hey, you know you haven’t won against me in close-out games,'” he mentioned. The outcome of that match turned out to be exactly the same as Paul’s team losing.
Several instances such as this enraged the point guard so much that the NBA had to take matters into its own hands.“The league had to step in cause Chris Paul wanted to put them hands on him. As he should,” Gil highlighted. He revealed, “Because this was such a big thing for Chris Paul and everyone had to step in, Scott Foster wasn’t on Chris Paul’s games for a long time.”
The heat reignited when the Point God qualified for his career-first NBA finals with the Phoenix Suns. After taking a 2-0 series lead against the Milwaukee Bucks, Scott was appointed as the referee for the Game 3, resulting in a similar fate. “All of a sudden when they played against the Bucks in the playoffs, it was up 2-0 and them game 3, they bring on Scott,” Arenas stated, mentioning, “Lost by 20”.
The situation took a turn for the worse as the 3x All-Star explained, “Game 6 Suns was favorite to win by 4. The referees came out. Scott Foster is on it”. It changed the entire nation’s betting odds for the encounter as Gil described, “Do you know damn near all of America went with Bucks?” as soon as they saw Paul’s nemesis.
A recent matchup between them further proved the existence of a potential detest between them. With just 23 seconds left in the first half, Scott called a foul against the Golden State Warriors veteran. It led to an argument between them as Foster ejected Paul with two consecutive technical foul calls against him. The interaction became a source of controversy, which shed more light on the damaged relationship between these two.
The complicated history between Chris Paul and Scott Foster
The truth behind the entirety of Gilbert’s words remains unknown to this date, but his comments are hard to rule out. Assuming that’s the case, the 12x All-Star won his first-ever playoff game against Scott last season. During Game 2 of the first round of the Western Conference, Chris’ Suns defeated the Clippers to tie the series in the presence of Foster.
Paul finally broke his silence on the matter, declaring, “It’s personal,” after the recent game against the Suns. “We had a situation some years ago and it’s personal,” he mentioned before confirming, “The league know, everybody knows. There’s been a meeting and all that”. The NBA has yet to speak out on the issue as Chris’ stance has gathered mass support. Thus, it would be interesting to see whether a change takes place in the future because of this.
